Tahawwur Rana, accused in the Mumbai terror attack, is expected to be extradited to India from the US. Sources informed that a multi-agency team from India has gone to the US and all paperwork and legalities are being completed with US authorities. The development comes as Rana has exhausted all his legal options available to such subjects in the US.
Ahead of Tahawwur Rana’s extradition, a high-level security review meeting was held at the Union Home Ministry. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval held the meeting to review the security arrangements ahead of his arrival in India.
In the meantime, sources told India TV that the special flight carrying Tahawwur Rana will reach Delhi on Thursday afternoon. The plane has taken off from the US. He is being brought to India by a special plane.
Rana was 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 sources told PTI that Rana's extradition would help probe agencies expose the role of Pakistani state actors behind the 26/11 attacks and may shed new light on the investigation.
Once extradited, Rana may be kept in the NIA's custody initially after due legal formalities, they said. His extradition from the US could provide important leads into his travels in parts of northern and southern India days before the carnage in 2008, the sources said.
On November 26, 2008, a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists went on a rampage, carrying out a coordinated attack 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 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.
