US SC clears 26/11 Mumbai attack convict Tahawwur Rana’s extradition: What was his role in the attack?

Who is Tahawwur Rana?

Rana, 63, was a childhood friend of David Headley. Headley, a US citizen who was born to an American mother and a Pakistani father, was arrested in October 2009 by US authorities and sentenced to 35 years in prison for his involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

The US government said, “Headley was convicted of conspiracy to bomb public places in India; conspiracy to murder and main persons in India; six counts of aiding and abetting the murder of U.S. citizens in India; conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism in India…” He was also part of a conspiracy to bomb a newspaper office in Denmark.

Rana studied at the Hasan Abdal Cadet School in Pakistan, which Headley too attended for five years. After a stint as a doctor in the Pakistan Army, Rana moved to Canada and was eventually granted Canadian citizenship.

What was Rana’s role in the 26/11 attacks?

Rana later established a consultancy firm called First World Immigration Services in Chicago, USA. It was a branch of this business in Mumbai that provided Headley with the perfect cover to identify and surveil potential targets for the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

In the 26/11 attacks, on November 26, 2008, 10 LeT terrorists stormed into the financial capital of the country and for three consecutive days, the city of Mumbai was in the grip of terror. Major landmarks like the Taj hotel and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station were attacked. The violence claimed the lives of 166 people, including six Americans. Pakistani nationals who carried out the attacks reached India via boats, it was later found.

During court hearings, the US government attorneys argued that Rana was aware that Headley was involved with the LeT and that by assisting him and affording him cover for his activities, he was supporting the terrorist organisation and its associates.

Rana was arrested by American police soon after Headley’s arrest at Chicago’s O’Hare airport in October 2009. He was convicted in Chicago in 2011 of providing material support to the LeT for the India attack and for supporting the never-carried-out plot to attack a Danish newspaper named Jyllands-Posten, which printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2005.

However, jurors in the US cleared Rana of a more serious charge of providing support for the attacks in Mumbai.

Rana’s lawyer said he had been duped by Headley, who plotted the attacks. The defense called Headley the government’s chief witness, who testified to avoid the death penalty, a habitual liar and manipulator.

It was Headley’s testimony as a government witness at Rana’s trial in Chicago that led to Rana being sentenced to 14 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. In 2013, Headley entered a plea bargain with prosecutors in exchange for a reduced 35-year sentence, but Rana did not.

What did David Headley say of Rana?

Headley told prosecutors that in July 2006, he had travelled to Chicago to meet Rana and told him of the mission that the LeT had assigned him. Rana approved Headley’s plan to establish a First World Immigration Services centre in Mumbai and helped him obtain a five-year business visa.

However, while deposing via video link at the Bombay City Civil and Sessions Court in February 2016, Headley claimed that he had informed Rana of his activities only a few months before the attacks in November 2008.

Rana’s chief concern, Headley claimed, had been that no terror activities should be conducted from the company’s office in Tardeo in central Mumbai. Headley also told prosecutors in Mumbai that no visa application had been processed at the centre. Rana also provided financial support to Headley, paying him Rs 67,605 in October 2006, $500 in November 2006, Rs 17,636 a few days later, and $1,000 in December 2006.