Who is Tahawwur Rana, being extradited to India from US? What was his role in 26/11 terror attacks?

After Rana is extradited, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is expected to question him at its headquarters in Delhi amid enhanced security. Sources said he is likely to be lodged at Tihar Jail in a high-security ward.

Who is Tawahhur Rana?

A Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman, Rana served as a doctor in the Pakistani Army before moving to Canada in the 1990s and becoming a citizen in the early 2000s.

After obtaining Canadian citizenship, Rana moved to Chicago where, among other business, he had started an immigration agency which was later revealed to be a cover for plotting terror activities.

In 2009, he was arrested after his role in the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai and a planned attack on the offices of a Danish newspaper that had published controversial cartoons of the Prophet.

Earlier, a US court found him guilty of providing material support to terror groups that planned attacks in Mumbai and the Danish newspaper office.

How did Rana get involved in the 26/11 attacks?

Rana studied at Cadet College Hasanabdal in Pakistan’s Attock district, where he became friends with David Coleman Headley, the US national who is alleged to have conducted recces at various spots in Mumbai that were eventually targeted during the 26/11 terror attacks.

Headley later became an approver in the case.

What was the role of Rana in 26/11 terror attacks?

The probe by Indian agencies has pointed to the support Rana provided to Headley in carrying out the 26/11 terror attacks. Rana allegedly first helped Headley by opening a Mumbai branch of his immigration services firm “First World Immigration Services” in 2006. Headley used this as a cover to conduct recce at the various spots in the city which were attacked later.

In its supplementary chargesheet filed in 2023, the Mumbai police said Rana came to India days before the terror attacks and stayed in a five-star hotel between November 11 and 21, 2008. The attacks took place on November 26, 2008.

The police, in their chargesheet, also attached e-mails sent by Headley to Rana in which the former is seeking instructions from the latter. The police said that Rana was the link between Headley and the Pakistani intelligence service ISI.

As many as 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations of Mumbai.