Explainer: The case against Tahawwur Rana
Wanted by India for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistani-Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana’s extradition from the US marks the end of a long-drawn legal battle to bring him to justice.
The coordinated terror strikes on November 26, 2008, resulted in the death of more than 170 persons. India had formally asked for Rana’s provisional arrest in June 2020, initiating the legal process for extradition.
Role in 26/11
Now 64, Rana is an associate of Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the key conspirators of the November 26 attacks. He is learnt to have connections with terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Rana is believed to have played a pivotal role in facilitating travel documents for Headley (alias Dawood Gilani), who conducted reconnaissance of the key targets in Mumbai. These locations were later attacked by LeT terrorists with logistical and strategic backing of the ISI.
Rana reportedly travelled to Mumbai between November 11 and 21, 2008, via Dubai. During his stay at Hotel Renaissance in Powai, he supposedly reviewed the logistical preparations for the attacks.
Rana served as a doctor in the Pakistan army before moving to Canada in the 1990s. Later, in Chicago, he started an immigration agency.
What awaits Rana
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) plans to question Rana about his visits to Mumbai, Agra, Hapur, Cochin and Ahmedabad between November 13 and 21, 2008, immediately before the attacks. India’s extradition request for another conspirator of the Mumbai attacks, Hafiz Saeed, is pending with the Pakistani authorities.
As per the recommendations of a US court, high-security arrangements have been put in place at two jails in Delhi and Mumbai. Upon his arrival, Rana will be produced before an NIA court in New Delhi for custody. The Mumbai Crime Branch is expected to get his custody later.
Legal battle
In 2011, a US court acquitted Rana of charges of abetting the Mumbai terror attacks, but convicted him of providing material support to the LeT and helping a terror plot in Denmark. He was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.
When his health started deteriorating after the Covid pandemic, he was released from jail.
When Rana was rearrested for extradition to India, he challenged the extradition plea, but has now exhausted his legal options.
He even pleaded for a reprieve on medical grounds. He told a US court that he was suffering from an abdominal aortic aneurysm at immediate risk of rupture and Parkinson’s disease with cognitive decline.
In February, when US President Donald Trump met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it was announced that Rana would face justice in India.
What about Headley
The US has refused to extradite Headley, who is currently lodged in a prison in Chicago. Of mixed Pakistani-American parentage, he had entered into a plea bargain with the US Department of Justice that included him not getting extradited.
The US, in 2016, allowed Indian investigators to quiz Headley and he told how ISI gave him Rs 25 lakh to procure a boat in which 10 terrorists sailed from Karachi to Mumbai in November 2008.
