Closure in the 26/11 attacks

The impending extradition of Tahawwur Rana from the US is an important development in India’s journey towards finding closure in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks carried out by terrorists from Pakistan. In all 166 people, including 24 foreign nationals, were killed as a 10-member heavily armed Lashkar-e-Taiba squad that arrived in Mumbai via the Arabian Sea, held the city hostage for close to 60 hours, gunning down civilians at will. The capture of Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani citizen, and diligent investigation by Indian agencies, helped unravel the plot and the conspiracy behind one of the worst transnational terrorist attacks in history.

While the operation was masterminded by Pakistan’s spy agency ISI, the cross-border terror attack involved at least two foreign nationals, both of Pakistani origin — David Coleman Headley, a US national born in Pakistan, and Rana, a Canadian national. Headley was indicted for his role in the Mumbai attack by a US federal court and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Indian investigators were given access to Headley, who provided crucial leads. Rana, based in the US, is accused of facilitating Headley’s reconnaissance trips to Mumbai ahead of the 26/11 attacks (as the 2008 Mumbai carnage is commonly referred to). In the case of Rana, the extradition process started in December 2019, when India submitted a diplomatic note to the US; a year later, it made a formal request for his extradition. The Biden administration backed the request and approved the extradition of Rana under the 1997 bilateral extradition treaty. Rana was arrested in the US in October 2009 alongside Headley. Rana was convicted for his role in plotting a terror attack in Denmark and sentenced to 14 years in prison in January 2013. However, he was acquitted of charges directly related to the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Rana’s extradition, following the exhaustion of all legal avenues open to him in the US, is an endorsement of the painstaking work that the National Investigation Agency has carried out to piece together the plotting and the execution of the heinous 26/11 terror attacks. His interrogation could help uncover hitherto unknown facts about the attacks and further strengthen the case against Islamabad, which has preferred a public stance of duplicitous denial despite the mass of evidence submitted by New Delhi. Nine of the 10-member LeT squad were killed by Indian commandoes during the attack while Kasab, caught alive by the brave Mumbai cop Tukaram Omble, was tried in court, which sentenced him to death. Kasab was hanged to death in 2012 following due process. It is necessary that Rana is also made to stand trial in an Indian court and held accountable for his role in the crime.

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