NEW DELHI: The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has called the successful extradition of Tahawwur Rana to India a “critical step” in justice for the victims of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
Click here for live updates
“Rana’s extradition is a critical step toward seeking justice for the six Americans and scores of other victims who were killed in the heinous attacks,” a DOJ spokesperson told news agency PTI in a statement.
“The United States extradited Rana, a Canadian citizen and a native of Pakistan, to stand trial in India on 10 criminal charges stemming from his alleged role in the 2008 terrorist attacks,” the spokesperson added.
A multi-agency team led by officials of India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrived in Delhi on Thursday evening with Rana, days after the US Supreme Court rejected the Pakistani-Canadian nation’s appeal against his extradition. The Supreme Court appeal was the final legal option available to him to stop or delay the extradition.
During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s United States visit in February, US President Donald Trump announced his administration would extradite Rana to India.
The 64-year-old had served in Pakistan Army’s medical corps before emigrating to Canada in late 1990s, where he started an immigration consultancy firm. He later moved to America and set up an office in Chicago there.
Also Read | ‘He is Canadian’: Pakistan dissociates itself from 26/11 plotter Tahawwur Rana ahead of India extradition
Before his extradition, Rana was lodged in the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles and had submitted an Emergency Application For Stay Pending Litigation of Petition For Writ of Habeas Corpus on February 27 with Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit Elena Kagan.
As many as 166 people were killed and 238 injured in the deadly attacks carried out by a group of 10 Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, who were Pakistanis, on a railway station, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre after they sneaked into India’s financial capital through the Arabian Sea. The attacks, which began in the evening of November 26, 2008, ended on November 29 morning.
Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone terrorist to be captured alive, was tried and found guilty. He was hanged in November 2012.
