Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Apr 10: As the plane carrying Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the accused of plotting the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, landed in New Delhi on Thursday evening, Pakistan has attempted to distance itself from the alleged mastermind of one of the history’s worst terror attacks in which 166 people, including some foreigners, were slaughtered and over 300 injured.
Rana’s plane landed a day after a multi-agency Indian team left from the United States with him on a special flight. Rana is likely to be lodged in Tihar Jail in Delhi, sources informed, adding that he will be arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). A joint team of the NIA and the Research and Analysis Wing brought him back. The team had travelled to the US after the country’s Supreme Court dismissed Rana’s review plea seeking an emergency stay on his extradition to India.
According to the officials, high-security cells in Tihar Jail in the national capital and Arthur Road prison in Mumbai have been prepared for high-risk detainee. The NIA has also recently obtained a court order on the transfer of his case from Mumbai to Delhi.
Rana has been charged with criminal conspiracy, waging war against the government of India, murder and forgery and under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Rana, a Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman, is known to have been an active operative of the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). He played a pivotal role in facilitating travel documents for David Headley, who conducted reconnaissance of key targets in Mumbai, which were later attacked.
Reports from Pakistan quoted Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan as saying Rana made no attempt to renew lapsed citizenship after moving to Canada – i.e., Pakistan does not allow dual citizenship for migrants to Canada – and that it is now “very clear” he is a Canadian national. “Tahawwur Rana has not renewed his Pakistani documents for over two decades. His Canadian nationality is very clear,” Mr Khan said in Islamabad.
Rana – known to have links to Pakistan’s Army and its Inter-Services Intelligence, as also banned terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which carried out the attack. India has repeatedly said the 26/11 attacks were carried out with support from Pak-based actors.
The NIA charge sheet against Tahawwur Rana- filed in December 2011- accused him, David Headley and six others of planning and executing terror attacks in India. The charge sheet included statements of 134 witnesses, 210 documents and 106 emails, including one from David Headley’s wife who “congratulated” him for his graduation and also said she “saw the show (broadcast of the terror attack) all day.” David Headley and Tahawwur Rana were in constant communication in the run-up to the 26/11 attacks, emails accessed by NIA showed.
The 64-year-old will be arrested by India’s anti-terror agency, the NIA immediately after setting foot on Indian soil, lodged in a high security cell in Delhi’s Tihar Jail and presented in a Delhi court, in accordance with the law. He is later expected to be moved to Mumbai, where he will be interrogated by high-ranking officials and face trial. Headley, still in a US jail serving a 35-year term for another murder there, has said Rana extended logistical and financial support for the Mumbai attack.
Rana’s extradition from the US marked a significant step forward in India’s hunt for justice after the Mumbai attacks, and has been credited to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s diplomatic efforts. The Congress, though, pointed out the process to bring Rana back began on its watch, in 2009.
“This extradition is the culmination of a decade-and-a-half of painstaking diplomatic, legal, and intelligence efforts which were initiated, led, and sustained by the (Congress-led) UPA government, in coordination with the US,” P Chidambaram, then the Union Home Minister, said.
Rana had been arrested by the US’ FBI in October 2009 on charges of providing support to an aborted plan to attack a newspaper in Copenhagen and supporting Pak-based terror group Lashkar, which was responsible for the Mumbai attacks. Two years later, he was convicted. He then unsuccessfully appealed to American courts to challenge his extradition to India.
The three-day attack that devastated Mumbai targeted hotels, a train station, and a Jewish institution. Of the 10 terrorists, only one – Ajmal Kasab – was caught alive. Kasab was executed on November 21, 2012.
