Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a key conspirator in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, has been disowned by Pakistan following his extradition to India.
Rana was extradited from the United States to India on Thursday, nearly 27 years after the 2008 attacks. He was brought on a Gulfstream G550 aircraft using a dummy flight code to avoid tracking. The operation was conducted with the escort of NSG commandos and US Sky Marshals, with a stopover in Romania, before landing in New Delhi.
Pakistan has claimed that Rana is a Canadian national and that his Pakistani documents have not been renewed for over two decades.
According to US court documents, Rana had agreed to support David Headley’s activities in India, under the belief that he was working for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) under the direction of the Pakistani government.
Rana and Headley both reportedly received instructions from Ilyas Kashmiri, a former Pakistani military officer and founder of the banned militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI).
A dossier on Tahawwur Hussain Rana, prepared by Indian intelligence agencies, states that the former military doctor was a member of the banned terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and had plotted the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks alongside Pakistani-American David Headley, also known as Dawood Gilani. The attacks resulted in the deaths of 166 people, including six American citizens.
The Mumbai Police investigation into the November 2008 attacks, later taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), profiles Rana as having been born on January 12, 1961, in Chichawatni, Punjab province of Pakistan. He graduated from Cadet College Hasan Abdal and joined the Pakistan Army Medical Corps, serving as a Captain (General Duty Practitioner). He migrated to Canada with his wife in 1997, obtained Canadian citizenship in 2001, and eventually settled in Chicago, USA.
His father is a retired school principal from Lahore. One brother serves as a psychiatrist in the Pakistan military, while another sibling is a journalist for the Canadian newspaper The Hill Times.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) possesses recordings of Rana and Headley congratulating LeT leadership for the “excellent planning and execution” of the Mumbai attacks. Both were arrested at O’Hare Airport, Chicago, by US federal agents in October 2009 on multiple terrorism charges.
Indian agencies had shared critical information with US intelligence on Rana’s role in financing LeT and providing immigration documents as cover for Pakistan-trained extremists. He founded a halal meat business on Devon Avenue in Chicago and later established an immigration law agency, First World Immigration Services, which served as a front for multiple visits to India. He traveled to Mumbai, Agra, Kochi, and Hapur under the guise of an immigration consultant, scouting several sites in Mumbai while staying at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Colaba.
Investigators also found that Rana opened an immigration office in Mumbai to provide cover for his childhood friend, David Headley, who conducted reconnaissance of terror targets for Pakistan-based operatives Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.
Rana and Headley are also named in connection with the foiled plot to attack the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2009 for publishing controversial cartoons of Prophet Mohammed.
