Union Home Minister Amit Shah met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval here on Wednesday, against the backdrop of reports about the imminent extradition of Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana from the US, sources said.
Intelligence Bureau Director Tapan Deka and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri were also present at the meeting, the sources added, without elaborating on the issues discussed among those present.
Sources pointed out that since the meeting was held amidst reports about Rana’s extradition, the issue is believed to have figured in the discussions during the meeting. Rana has exhausted all legal options available in the United States and is likely to be brought back to India very soon. A multi-agency team of the central government is already in the US to bring the Pakistan-origin Canadian national to India to face trial in India with respect to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case.
Reports said that a special flight carrying Rana had left the US at 7.30pm IST and is expected to land in Delhi around noon on Thursday. Rana will initially be put in the custody of the National Investigation Agency, which will complete the legal formalities involved, sources said. It is not immediately known whether Rana will be brought back in a commercial aircraft or a chartered one.
He remains lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles. He is known to be associated with
Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Rana in Chicago a year after the Mumbai attacks in October 2009 for providing support to an aborted plan to attack a newspaper in Copenhagen (Denmark) and providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Rana was convicted in 2011 in that case and sentenced to 14 years in jail. However, Rana was acquitted of the charges of conspiracy to provide material support to the Mumbai terror attacks.
His last-ditch effort to stop his extradition failed as the US Supreme Court rejected his application, moving him closer to being handed over to the Indian authorities to face the law in the country.
Rana’s extradition to India will help Indian probe agencies expose the role of Pakistani State actors behind the dastardly act that claimed 166 lives and may shed new light on the investigation, sources said on Wednesday.
During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the White House in February last, US President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of “very evil people of the world to face justice in India”.
His extradition from the US could provide important leads into his travels to parts of northern and southern India days before the carnage in 2008, the sources said.
The central security officials had found that Rana had visited Hapur and Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Kochi in Kerala, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, and Mumbai in Maharashtra with his wife Samraz Rana Akhtar between November 13 and November 21, 2008, they said.
Rana had submitted business sponsor letters from ‘Immigrant Law Center’ and Property Tax payment notice from Cook County as his address proof. The sources said once Rana is brought to India, the purpose of these visits will be established.
On November 26, 2008, a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists went on a rampage, carrying out coordinated attacks on a railway station, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre, after they sneaked into India’s financial capital Mumbai using the Arabian Sea route.
Among the 166 people killed were US, British and Israeli nationals. The nearly 60-hour assault sent shockwaves across the country and even brought India and Pakistan to the brink of a war.
The terrorists had targeted multiple iconic locations in Mumbai, including the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, Leopold Cafe, Chabad House and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station, each of which Headley had scouted in advance.
In November 2012, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist among the Pakistani group, was hanged to death in Yerawada Jail in Pune.
India has been trying to extradite Rana for many years because of his association with Pakistan-based terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HUJI), Headley and his active involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
It is alleged that Rana was aware of Headley’s terror links and even helped in reconnaissance of potential targets in Mumbai as well as plan the attacks on the National Defence College (NDC) in New Delhi and Chabad House in Mumbai.
The extradition of Rana was first cleared by the US Supreme Court in January as it rejected his review petition in the case.
During the investigation, the roles of senior functionaries of banned terror groups LeT and HUJI - Hafiz Muhammad Saeed alias Tayyaji, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Sajjid Majid alias Wasi, Illyas Kashmiri and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed alias Major Abdurrehman alias Pasha with active connivance and assistance from officers of the Inter-Services Intelligence, namely Major Iqbal alias Major Ali, Major Sameer Ali alias Major Samir, all residents of Pakistan — have emerged, the sources said.
The NIA had chargesheeted Rana as a “co-conspirator” who provided logistical, financial and other assistance to Headley and other co-conspirators towards the criminal conspiracy to organise terrorist attacks in India. The NIA had sent extradition requests to the US for extradition of Headley and Rana.
