17 years on, 26/11 survivors hope for long-awaited justice

Rana, a 64-year-old retired Pakistani military doctor was a co-conspirator who helped the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists execute the Mumbai terror attacks

Mumbai: As one of the facilitators of the 26/11 terror attack Tahawwur Rana is set to be extradited to India in the next 24 hours, in Mumbai, survivors and families of victims are once again confronted with painful memories. While some see his return as a long-awaited chance for justice—even demanding death penalty for Rana—others simply want answers to a question that still haunts them: “Why?”

26/11 Mumbai attack accused, Tahawwur Rana (ANI)

Devika Rotawan, one of the youngest survivors of the 26/11 attacks says, “I just want to ask him why did he inflict that terror upon us?” Rotwan, now in her early 20s, was just 10 years old when she was shot at at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus as she and her family readied to travel to Pune. Rotwan was shot in the leg, an injury that has left her with permanent damage. “Even though I have healed, my leg still swells up if I walk for too long. There’s still a big gash on my calf where the bullet hit me,” she says. The then-10-year-old was one of the key witnesses who identified her shooter Ajmal Kasab in court.

“I don’t want to forget what happened. Forgetting feels like forgiving, and I can never forgive them. Rana should be hanged for what he did to so many innocent people,” she says.

Worli gallerist Kalpana Shah who lost her husband Pankaj Shah in the attack at the Trident at Nariman Point echoed Rotwan’s need for some sort of justice. “Justice may never bring closure—I will never get my husband back—but it’s a step toward accountability,” she said offering thanks to the Indian government for Rana’s extradition. “He is inhuman. People like him do not understand compassion or loss,” she added.

According to the Mumbai police’s supplementary charge-sheet filed in September 2023, Rana, a 64-year-old retired Pakistani military doctor was a co-conspirator who helped the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists execute the Mumbai terror attacks. Rana, a Canadian citizen, allegedly provided cover for the double agent David Coleman Headley aka Sayed Dawood Gilani, an American national of Pakistani descent. Rana opened a branch of his company, First World Immigration Services, in south Mumbai, and also helped Headley obtain a visa to travel to India and stay in the city.

Headley made five extended trips to Mumbai as an executive of Rana’s immigration firm in September 2006, February and September 2007, and April and July 2008 — each time making videotapes of various potential targets in the city, including those attacked in November 2008. Rana himself visited and stayed in the city for around a fortnight from October 11 to October 21, 2008, to co-ordinate with Headley.

Rana who has been in the US for the last several years, lost his last legal recourse on Monday when the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court John Roberts rejected his appeal for emergency stay on health grounds, said media reports.

Like Rotwan and Shah, Karuna Waghela, a conservancy worker and mother of three, lost her husband Thakur Waghela that same night. Waghela, a sanitation worker at GT Hospital, had returned home for dinner when Kasab arrived at their doorstep, asking for water. Moments later Kasab shot dead her husband.

“My husband gave water to that killer—and was shot dead in return,” Karuna says, her voice still shaky after all these years as she reminisces. “Kasab got what he deserved. Rana should too. Anyone who was part of the planning and execution of those attacks deserves to be hanged. I don’t care what his name is or where he’s from—he took part in killing people like my husband. He should pay with his life.”