Mumbai terror attack: Indian officials travel to US to take custody of Tahawwur Rana
The Pakistan-born Canadian physician earlier this week lost his plea against extradition in the US Supreme Court.
A team of investigators, including an inspector general (IG) rank officer of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), has travelled to the US to take 26/11 Mumbai attacks co-conspirator Tahawwur Rana into custody and bring him to India, officials said.
The Pakistan-born Canadian physician earlier this week lost his plea against extradition in the US Supreme Court.
“A team of three officers from NIA, including an IG and a DIG, and a few other intelligence officers, have travelled to the US and Rana could be brought to Delhi shortly,” people familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity.
The US Supreme Court first rejected Rana’s plea on January 21 against extradition to India and his surrender to NIA was approved by the Donald Trump administration during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Washington in February.
Against Trump administration’s decision, Rana again filed a review petition, first before a single judge in the US Supreme Court in February and then again before chief justice John G Roberts Jr, seeking an emergency stay on his extradition.
Rana had argued “he was being sent into a hornet’s nest where he will be pointed to as a target of national, religious, and cultural animosity whose punishment is of the highest national interest”.
The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher though as petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks, he further contended. “Further, because of his Muslim religion, his Pakistani origin, his status as a former member of the Pakistani Army, the relation of the putative charges to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and his chronic health conditions he is even more likely to be tortured than otherwise would be the case, and that torture is very likely to kill him in short order,” Rana argued.
Both his review pleas have been rejected by the US Supreme court – the last one on Monday.
An officer cited above said that “after both the reviews were decided in India’s favour, a team has travelled to the US to complete the formalities of Rana’s extradition”.
According to officials familiar with the procedure, Rana will be removed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from the metropolitan detention centre at Los Angeles, where he is currently lodged, and will be surrendered to the Indian team.
The government has not disclosed the exact time of Rana’s arrival to India, but officials suggested that it would be “very soon”, and he is likely to be brought in a special plane sent from India.
Once in India, NIA will produce him before a court in Delhi and take his custody for interrogation.
It is for the first time ever Rana will be questioned by Indian agencies. When a NIA team travelled to the US in June 2010 to question David Coleman Headley, Rana was not questioned.
As part of the investigation, Rana will also be taken to Mumbai – where the attacks took place and his immigration company, First World International’s branch was opened and was used by David Coleman Headley as a cover during his reconnaissance travels.
Other than Mumbai, Rana will also be taken to Agra, Hapur, Cochin and Ahmedabad, which he visited with his wife between November 13 and 21, 2008, just before the attacks in which 166 people were killed.
NIA officials hope to get information about exact role of conspirators based in Pakistan, officials in Pakistan army and ISI who oversaw and funded the terror attack.
Between November 26 and 29in 2008, 166 people, including 24 foreign nationals, were killed as a 10-member heavily armed Lashkar-e-Taiba squad that arrived in Mumbai via the Arabian Sea, held the city hostage for close to 60 hours, gunning down civilians at will. Interrogation of captured terrorist Ajmal Kasab and technical investigations revealed direct role of Pakistan’s spy agency ISI, and its three military officials were named as key conspirators along with LeT chief Hafiz Saeed.
David Coleman Headley, a US citizen and childhood friend of Rana, conducted reconnaissance of the targets in Mumbai. He was arrested by the FBI in 2009 and is currently serving a 35-year term after he entered into a plea bargain with authorities there.
Indian agencies and the FBI have accused Rana of helping co-conspirator David Coleman Headley carry out the reconnaissance of targets in Mumbai and providing logistical support to LeT in orchestrating the attacks. He was arrested by FBI in 2009 for being part of conspiracies to commit terrorist acts outside the US, including in Mumbai and Copenhagen.
In June 2020, India sought Rana’s provisional arrest for his extradition, and the Joe Biden administration supported it. On May 16, 2023, an extradition court certified his extradition to India. The 63-year-old then moved a habeas court in California, which rejected his petition on August 10, 2023. He then approached the circuit court, which turned down his plea in August last year.
