Rana approaches US top court against extradition
With Rana finally being extradited to India, NIA officials hope to get information about exact role of conspirators based in Pakistan
New Delhi: Tahawwur Rana, one of the people behind the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai has filed an emergency application in the US Supreme Court against his extradition to India saying that being a Muslim of Pakistani origin, and a former Pakistan army officer, the likelihood of his torture in India is high, adding that he was being sent into a “hornet’s nest”.
The Pakistani-Canadian doctor cited a recent UK high court decision rejecting arms dealer Sanjay Bhandari’s extradition to India on grounds that he could face “torture” to buttress the application.
Indian officials termed the move futile, although they admitted that it has marginally delayed Rana’s surrender to a National Investigation Agency (NIA) team, till at least the end of March. “But he is coming for sure,” said a senior government official, who asked not to be named.
The US Supreme Court on January 21 rejected Rana’s plea 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 last month.
The state department press office told HT in an email response last month that “the secretary of state has signed the surrender warrant authorizing Rana’s surrender to Indian authorities”, adding that “the US government has long supported India’s efforts to ensure the perpetrators of the Mumbai terrorist attacks face justice”.
In his emergency application filed in the US Supreme Court, Rana, 64, invoked the United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT), which he said has been implemented by Congress as part of the FARRA (Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998).
“Under the CAT and the FARRA, the United States may not expel, extradite, or otherwise effect the involuntary return of any person to a country in which there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture,” Rana argued.
“There are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture,” he added.
Dragging Modi and Trump meeting into his emergency application, Rana has imputed political considerations behind his extradition, arguing that the day Indian PM arrived in Washington (February 12), the state department informed his counsel that it had decided to surrender him to India “anyway”.
“Petitioner is to be sent into a hornet’s nest where he will be (and already has been, in the joint statement by Prime Minister Modi and President Trump) pointed to as a target of national, religious, and cultural animosity whose punishment is of the highest national interest,” Rana said in his plea, seen by HT.
Further citing US state department’s annual country reports, Rana said: “Year after year, the State Department itself has issued reports documenting human rights abuses in the Indian criminal justice system, including arbitrary or unlawful killings, rape, and torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the Indian government (including, but not limited to, administration of electrical shocks, waterboard, asphyxiation, and stress positions during interrogation”.
“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,” his petition stated.
“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.
Referring to the Human Rights Watch 2023 World Report, the wanted 26/11 accused claimed this report documents the “BJP-led government continued its systematic discrimination and stigmatization of religious and other minorities, particularly Muslims,” alongside “persistent allegations of torture and extrajudicial killings”.
Rana has argued that he suffers from multiple acute and life-threatening diagnoses, “including a 3.5 cm abdominal aortic aneurysm at immediate risk of rupture under conditions of stress or physical exertion, two other bilateral iliac aneurysms further exacerbating risk of catastrophic internal hemorrhage, multiple documented heart attacks, Parkinson’s disease with cognitive decline, a mass suggestive of bladder cancer, stage 3 chronic kidney disease, and a history of chronic asthma, COPD, and multiple Covid-19 infections”.
In a supplementary document filed on February 2 in support of his plea, Rana cited UK high court’s February 28 decision in London rejecting India’s extradition request for Sanjay Bhandari.
“The Bhandari decision underscores the importance of meaningful judicial review of the Secretary of State’s purported determination that Rana’s extradition to India will not violate the CAT as implemented in the US. The Bhandari decision demonstrates that petitioner’s fears of being subjected to torture, likely to result in death, are well-founded as evidenced by the UK courts’ refusal to extradite to India an individual charged merely with financial crimes unaccompanied by any high-profile, overarching religious, ethnic, or national considerations that would make the individual a particular focus of scorn or animus,” Rana said in his plea.
“If Mr Bhandari could not be extradited to India because he was likely to be tortured, petitioner is even more likely to be tortured and similarly should not be extradited,” the application argued.
Officials familiar with the plea said “it’s just a formality now. Rana is making last-ditch attempts to save himself but he will soon be extradited”.
Currently lodged at metropolitan detention centre at Los Angeles, Rana will be handed over to NIA by FBI on a day agreed upon by both sides.
Between November 26 and 29, 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 the direct role of Pakistan’s spy agency ISI, and three of its 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 FBI in 2009 and is currently serving a 35-year term after he entered into a plea bargain with authorities there.
With Rana finally being extradited to India, 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.
