Tahawwur Rana’s extradition will expose Pakistani’s role in 26/11 attacks: Sources

Rana has exhausted all his legal options available to such subjects in the US and would be brought back to India very soon

New Delhi: Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana, who is expected to be extradited to India from the US very soon, would help probe agencies expose the role of Pakistani State actors behind the dastardly act that claimed 166 lives, sources said on Wednesday.

Rana has exhausted all his legal options available to such subjects in the US and would be brought back to India very soon, they said, adding a multi-agency team is in the United States to bring the Pakistan-origin Canadian national to India.

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The significant development comes days after Rana’s last-ditch effort to stop his extradition failed as the US Supreme Court denied his application, moving him closer to being handed over to the Indian authorities to face the law in the country.

Rana was 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.

A multi-agency team from India has gone to the US and all paperwork and legalities are being completed with the authorities there, the sources said, claiming that there is a “very high possibility” that Rana “could be extradited shortly.”

During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the White House in February, US President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of “very evil people of the world” Rana “to face justice in India”. The sources said Rana’s extradition would help probe agencies expose the role of Pakistani state actors behind the 26/11 attacks and may shed new light on the investigation.

Once extradited, Rana may be kept in the NIA’s custody initially after due legal formalities, they said. His extradition from the US could provide important leads into his travels in parts of northern and southern India days before the carnage in 2008, the sources said.

The central security officials had found that Rana had visited Hapur and Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Kochi in Kerala, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, and Mumbai in Maharashtra with his wife Samraz Rana Akhtar between November 13 and November 21, 2008, they said. Rana had submitted business sponsor letters from ‘Immigrant Law Center’ and Property Tax payment notice from Cook County as his address proof. The sources said once Rana is brought to India, the purpose of these visits would be established.

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 Arabian sea route.

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.