Tahawwur Hussain Rana, one of the key conspirators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, has admitted during interrogation that he was in the city on November 20 and 21, few days before the time of the carnage and was a trusted agent of the Pakistani army. He stayed at hotel in Powai and on November 21, he left for Beijing via Dubai.
Rana, who was Pakistan Army’s Medical Officer, knew co-accused David Coleman Headley from 1974. He and Headley were in Mumbai to identify the terror targets like Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and was in regular touch with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Rana, who is in NIA custody in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, told the Mumbai Crime Branch during questioning that he and his friend and Headley had several training sessions with Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba. Rana also admitted that the LeT mainly worked as a spy network.
Rana admitted that the idea of opening an immigration centre of his firm in Mumbai was his, and financial transactions in it were also done as business expenses. Headley travelled to several Indian cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Pushkar, Goa and Pune in the guise of a representative of Rana’s Immigrant Law Centre, ran by awoman. This office served as a front to enable the terrorists’ surveillance before the attacks.
The 64-year-old also said he was sent by the Pakistani army to Saudi Arabia during the Khaleej War. Rana, a Pakistani-origin Canadian, was extradited to India earlier this year. His extradition followed the April 4 dismissal of his review petition by the US Supreme Court. Rana was formally taken into judicial custody by the NIA after being brought to India in May.
He is being questioned in connection with multiple charges, including conspiracy, murder, commission of a terrorist act and forgery. Last month, a Delhi court extended Rana’s judicial custody till July 9.