26/11 Mumbai Terror Attacks: Tahawwur Rana Singing Before NIA, Pakistan Exposed?
Tahawwur Rana’s extradition was not an easy task. A dogged legal battle and India’s relations with the US led to its success
Tahawwur Hussain Rana did not personally fire a bullet during the horrific Mumbai 26/11 attacks but ensured his school friend David Coleman Headley prepared the blueprint. Rana had proclaimed, “Indians deserved it" and the 26/11 attackers “should receive Pakistan’s highest military honour, the Nishan-e-Haider".
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Seventeen years after India’s biggest terror attack, Rana is now talking inside a National Investigation Agency (NIA) lock-up in the heart of Delhi. It has taken time, but for the first time, India has custody of a key plotter of the 26/11 attacks and plans to expose the Pakistani state’s role in the conspiracy. This is the first extradition connected to the 26/11 attacks. Earlier, India prosecuted and hanged 26/11 gunman Ajmal Kasab and secured the deportation of plotter Abu Jundal from Saudi Arabia.
However, Rana is more than just a cog in the wheel and possesses far more knowledge than Kasab and Jundal. Officials in the Indian establishment believe that Rana, the former Pakistani Army doctor who loved to flaunt his Pakistani uniform, could expose direct links between Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Pakistan’s deep state.
Not only does this development give families of 26/11 victims a shot at justice, but it also provides India a chance to send a global message at forums such as the UN Security Council – that state-sponsored terror will not be buried by time.
Not any more.
While India could not obtain custody of Headley and Pakistan did not hand over masterminds such as Hafiz Saeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, ISI’s Major Iqbal or Sajid Mir, knowing how Rana’s extradition could finally expose its lies, Pakistan has already distanced itself from Rana, saying he is a Canadian citizen, who has not applied for renewal of his Pakistani-origin documents for the past two decades. However, it will not be easy any more for Pakistan to disassociate itself from the 26/11 attacks.
WHY RANA’S ROLE IS CRUCIAL
Rana’s extradition was not an easy task. A dogged legal battle and India’s relations with the US led to its success. Rana fought extradition for five years after the NIA, under the Narendra Modi government, officially moved a plea in 2020. Now 64, Rana was born in Pakistan and became an Army doctor. Later, he became an immigration consultant in Chicago. From 2005, he was helping his high school friend from Pakistan, Headley, spy for LeT in Mumbai. Headley scouted targets, and Rana provided cover.
In 2006, Rana opened a branch of his immigration firm in Mumbai to help Headley get a multi-entry visa to travel to India as a manager of this firm. Headley made eight visits to India — one of them even after the 26/11 attacks — but was never caught. How did Headley know where to look? Because Rana’s firm gave him a ‘business front’ to move freely. He funded, facilitated, and helped cover Headley’s tracks while he surveilled targets such as the Taj Hotel, CSMT, and Nariman House. Headley went to Chicago to brief Rana on his reconnaissance missions – so Rana had knowledge of what was coming.
The NIA now wants to know from Rana what he did while visiting India from November 13 to 21, 2008, just days before the 26/11 attacks. He went to Hapur, Delhi, Cochin, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and other locations. The NIA could take Rana to all these places to ascertain what he was planning in terms of future attacks. He also met an unknown Lashkar operative in Dubai after Headley asked him to leave India. The NIA wants to know who this person is. There is also a ‘protected witness’ of the NIA who had arranged accommodation and logistics in Mumbai for Headley at Rana’s request. This person could be confronted with Rana soon.
THE POLITICS
From dismissing him as a ‘minor player’ in the 26/11 conspiracy to saying the groundwork to extradite Rana began in the UPA’s tenure, the Congress has tied itself up in knots over the Rana matter. The BJP has termed it yet another diplomatic and strategic success of the Narendra Modi government and taken potshots at the Congress for not acting assertively against Pakistan after the attacks. The Congress continues to cite how it won the 2009 Lok Sabha elections just months after the 26/11 attacks with a bigger majority than in 2004 — to show people trusted the UPA’s approach.
However, beyond the politics, the question is about justice for the 26/11 victims and ensuring such a catastrophic attack is never seen again on Indian soil. The Modi government must deliver on both these counts.
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