United States President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that his administration has approved the extradition of 26/11 Mumbai attacks accused Tahawwur Rana. This key move by Washington would help probe agencies expose the role of Pakistani state actors behind the dastardly attack in Mumbai that left 166 people dead, news agency PTI reported on Friday, citing sources.
Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is one of the plotters and very evil people of the world who is to face justice in India. He is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles. He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks.
Speaking on Rana’s extradition, Foreign Secretary Vikram Mistri said that India is working on the logistics of his surrender and extradition from the US. Rana’s early extradition would help probe agencies expose the role of Pakistani state actors behind the 26/11 terror attack and may shed new light on the investigation, sources told PTI.
On November 26, 2008, a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists went on a rampage, carrying out a coordinated attack on a railway station, two luxury hotels, and a Jewish centre, after they sneaked into India’s financial capital, Mumbai, using the sea route in the Arabian Sea.
Among the 166 people killed were US, British and Israeli nationals. The nearly 60-hour assault sent shockwaves across the country and even brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war. The terrorists had targeted multiple iconic locations in Mumbai, including the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, Leopold Cafe, Chabad House, and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station, each of which Headley had scouted in advance.
In November 2012, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman among the Pakistani group, was hanged to death in Yerawada Jail in Pune. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the US arrested Rana in Chicago a year after the attacks in October 2009 for arranging material support for terrorist attacks in Mumbai and Copenhagen.
India has been trying to extradite Rana for many years because of his association with Pakistan-based terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HUJI), Headley, and his active involvement in the Mumbai attacks, PTI quoted sources as saying.
It is alleged that Rana was aware of Headley’s terror links and even helped in reconnaissance of targets in Mumbai and planning the attacks on the National Defence College (NDC) in New Delhi and Chabad House in Mumbai.
The extradition of Rana was cleared by the US Supreme Court in January as it rejected his review petition in the case. Rana is wanted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing the 26/11 attack case.
During the investigation, the roles of senior functionaries of the banned terror groups LeT and HUJI—Hafiz Muhammad Saeed alias Tayyaji, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Sajjid Majid alias Wasi, Illyas Kashmiri, and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed alias Major Abdur Rehman alias Pasha with active connivance and assistance from officers of ISI, namely, Major Iqbal alias Major Ali, Major Sameer Ali alias Major Samir, all residents of Pakistan—have emerged, the sources said.
The NIA had also sent extradition requests to the US for the extradition of Headley and Rana. A letter rogatory (letter of request for assistance in the investigation) has been furnished to Pakistan, and the reply is awaited, the sources further stated.
(With PTI Inputs)
