Two Pakistani-origin Chicago residents -- Tahawwur Hussein Rana and David Coleman Headley -- were on Friday indicted by a federal grand jury in the US on charges of plotting attack on a Danish newspaper and helping plan the 26/11 Mumbai attacks that killed 163 people including six American nationals.
The 12-count superseding indictment contains identical charges that were filed against Headley, a US citizen, on December 7 last year.
It adds Rana, a Canadian citizen, as a defendant in three of the counts charging material support of the terrorism plots in Denmark and India, as well as in support of terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Also indicted on conspiracy charges related to the Denmark plot were Ilyas Kashmiri, an alleged terror kingpin in Pakistan who is said to be in regular contact with Al-Qaeda leaders and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, a retired major in the Pakistani military, the US Department of justice said in a statement. Neither man is in US custody.
Both Kashmiri and Abdur Rehman were charged in two conspiracy counts relating to the Denmark terrorism plot.
Rana and Abdur Rehman were charged separately in previous court filings, but today's indictment charges Kashmiri for the first time, although he was identified by name in the charges filed previously against Rana, Abdur Rehman and Headley.
{{/usCountry}}Rana and Abdur Rehman were charged separately in previous court filings, but today's indictment charges Kashmiri for the first time, although he was identified by name in the charges filed previously against Rana, Abdur Rehman and Headley.
{{/usCountry}}Rana, 49, has remained in federal custody in Chicago since he was arrested on October 18 last year in connection with the planned attack on a Danish newspaper.