- Saturday, April 12, 2025
The 64-year-old Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin landed in Delhi in a special plane on Thursday evening ending days of speculation regarding his extradition
By: India Weekly
TAHAWWUR HUSSAIN RANA, a key accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, was brought to India on Thursday after being “successfully extradited” from the US, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said.
The 64-year-old Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin landed in Delhi in a special plane on Thursday evening, ending days of speculation of when and how he will be extradited, officials said.
The NIA said in a statement that it had secured the successful extradition after years of sustained and concerted efforts to bring to justice the key conspirator behind the 2008 mayhem that claimed 166 lives.
Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan and special public prosecutor Narender Mann, who are representing the NIA, reached the Patiala House court premises shortly after news that he had landed in Delhi.
Police officials asked mediapersons to leave and said they were ensuring the court premises were fully vacant.
The lawyers, however, refused to comment.
The announcement that Rana would finally be extradited came when prime minister Narendra Modi visited the US capital in February.
“We are giving a very violent man back to India immediately to face justice in India,” US President Donald Trump said at a joint press conference with Modi on February 14.
Rana was held in judicial custody in the US following proceedings initiated under the India-US Extradition Treaty for his extradition.
He was also found guilty in June 2011 of conspiring to attack a Danish newspaper, a plot that was never carried out.
The extradition finally came through after Rana exhausted all legal avenues to stay the move.
“The extradition proceedings were initiated between the two countries after India eventually secured a surrender warrant for the wanted terrorist from the US government,” the NIA said.
Rana is accused of conspiring with David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani, and operatives of designated terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HUJI) along with other Pakistan-based co-conspirators, to carry out the terror siege of India’s financial capital that lasted for three days.
Both LeT and HUJI have been declared terrorist organisations by the Indian government under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
A group of 10 Pakistani terrorists sneaked into Mumbai through the Arabian Sea and carried out deadly attacks on a railway station, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre.
Among the 166 killed were US, British and Israeli nationals, and 238 were injured.
Born in Pakistan in 1961, Rana had served in the Pakistan Army medical corps before emigrating to Canada in late 1990s and started his immigration consultancy firm.
He later moved to the US and set up an office in Chicago.
Through his firm, Rana gave cover to Headley to carry out reconnaissance mission in Mumbai so that the terrorists could launch the attacks.
The officials said Rana’s extradition would help probe agencies expose the role of Pakistani state actors behind the 26/11 attacks and may shed new light on the investigation.
His extradition from the US could provide important leads into his travels in parts of northern and southern India days before the carnage in 2008, NIA officials said.
Rana visited Hapur and Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Kochi in Kerala, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, and Mumbai in Maharashtra with his wife Samraz Rana Akhtar between November 13 and November 21, 2008, they said.
Pakistan on Thursday said that it has nothing to do with Rana, asserting that he is a Canadian national and has not renewed his Pakistani documents for over two decades.
“He is a Canadian national and as per our record he has not renewed his Pakistani documents for over two decades,” Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said while responding to a question during his weekly press briefing in Islamabad.
Though the spokesperson stopped short of providing details of “documents”, such documents often include a national identity card for overseas Pakistanis and a passport.
Israeli envoy Reuven Azar has welcomed the extradition of Rana to India and thanked the government for its “persistence in bringing the terrorists to justice”.
In a video message, the envoy said, “We are encouraged to hear about the extradition to India of one of the perpetrators of the terrible and horrendous terrorist attacks that happened in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, which took the lives of innocent civilians, including Israelis.
“I would like to thank the government of India for its persistence in bringing the terrorists to justice,” he said.
The BJP said on Thursday said Rana’s extradition reflects “new India’s” zero-tolerance towards terrorism under prime minister Narendra Modi, and accused the Congress of being soft on terror for “vote-bank politics”.
The Congress countered that the Modi government did not initiate the process of Rana’s extradition but benefited from the “mature, consistent and strategic diplomacy” that began under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) dispensation.
Former home secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai said that Rana will definitely get convicted in the country possibly with a death sentence for his involvement in the dastardly terrorist act.
He said Rana was an associate of David Colemon Headley, who played a significant role in the 26/11 attacks.
“Rana was the person who set up the immigration office (of his firm) in Mumbai in which David Headley was given the job and then he got a visa to come to India. The cover for Headley was provided by Rana.
“So, he and Headley were very close and they knew what was happening. So that is something which his interrogation in India will bring out and what Headley had told him,” Pillai told PTI Videos.
He said Rana was not the person who did the survey of the Taj hotel and other places where the terrorists will land.
“All that was done by David Headley. He was the person who came to India, then went to Pakistan and shared all the information (to terrorists in Pakistan). But as a co-conspirator, Rana will definitely get convicted in India and possibly (get) a death sentence or 10 years or more,” said Pillai, who took over as the home secretary barely six months after the deadliest terror strike.
On Pakistan’s role in 26/11 terror attacks, he said that link has already been established during the NIA (National Investigation Agency) investigation and “we had the other accused who were there in Pakistan against whom warrants have been issued but not executed by Pakistan”.
“So, that link was very clearly established initially with some cooperation from Pakistan. But subsequently Pakistan has been stonewalling the entire investigation. They didn’t try them (accused) in Pakistan either and did not hand them to us for trial in India,” the former home secretary said. (PTI)
