NEW DELHI: Tahawwur Rana, one of the masterminds of the 2008 deadly terror attack on Mumbai, has been dispatched to India by the US authorities, clearing the way for only the second accused of the carnage to be tried in an Indian court.
Rana, who lost his last-gasp bid to thwart extradition to India on Monday with John Roberts, Chief Justice of US Supreme Court rejecting his appeal for emergency stay, may land in India by Wednesday and be formally arrested upon touchdown.
A team of officials drawn from Indian agencies in the US were tasked to facilitate his return. The team, comprising seasoned professionals with experience in international law and intelligence gathering, successfully navigated the complex extradition process, ensuring Rana’s safe and secure transfer from US custody to Indian authorities.
He was subsequently put on a special flight. Two jails, one in Delhi and another in Mumbai, were asked to covertly make special arrangements in line with US judiciary recommendations about extradited subjects. He is initially likely to be in custody of NIA for the first few weeks.
The exercise was supervised by National Security Adviser A K Doval, along with officials from the ministry of home affairs.
Rana, a Pakistani-Canadian and active member of LeT, had arranged passports for fellow jehadi, Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley aka Dawood Gilani, to travel to India to select targets for the terror attack that was being hatched by Lashkar in collaboration with ISI, Pakistan’s spy agency. Rana gloated over the slaughter of innocent civilians in Mumbai on Nov 26, 2008 by and said that the jehadis responsible for it should be given Pakistan’s highest posthumous military honors.
So far only Ajmal Kasab, the sole LeT terrorist involved in 26/11 rampage who was nabbed alive, had been prosecuted .
In Feb, US President Donald Trump had confirmed Rana’s extradition to India saying he was pleased to announce that Rana is “going back to India to face justice”. During the joint press meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi after their bilateral meeting, Trump had said: “I am pleased to announce that my administration has approved the extradition of one of the plotters (Tahawwur Rana) and one of the very evil people of the world, having to do with the horrific 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack to face justice in India.”
The extradition was the result of sustained efforts by the Modi govt since 2019. That year in Dec, India had submitted a diplomatic note to the US to extradite Rana. On June 10, 2020, India filed a complaint seeking the provisional arrest of Rana to pave the way for his extradition, marking the beginning of a cat-and-mouse game.
