Pak-origin 26/11 conspirator Tahawwur Rana arrested in US, likely to be extradited to India

Tahawwur Rana, the conspirator of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai has been rearrested in the US and is likely to be extradited to India over his involvement in the 2008 terror attacks in which 166 people were killed.

The 59-year-old Pakistani-born Canadian was serving a 14-year-sentence and he was allowed early release from the prison after he told a US court that he has tested positive for COVID-19. However, he never made it out of prison.

Following an extradition request by India, where he has been declared a fugitive, he was rearrested on June 10.

Assistant US Attorney John J Lulejian informed the court that as per the bilateral Extradition Treaty signed in 1997, the government of India has requested the arrest and detention of Rana with a view towards his extradition, news agency PTI reported.

Rana is being prosecuted in India for a number of offences, including the conspiracy to commit murder, in violation of Sections 120B and 302, and murder in violation of Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Lulejian told the court.

Charges on Tahawwur Rana

As per the federal prosecutors, Rana participated in a conspiracy with his childhood friend David Coleman Headley, also known as 'Daood Gilani', and others to assist Pakistani terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harakat ul-Jihad-e-Islami, to carry out attacks in Mumbai.

He has been charged "with murder and murder conspiracy in India, according to court documents", he had however been cleared of the more serious charge of "providing support for the attacks in Mumbai."

"Rana's lawyer said at trial that he had been duped by his high school buddy, Headley, an admitted terrorist who plotted the Mumbai attacks. The defence called Headley, the government's chief witness who testified to avoid the death penalty, a habitual liar and manipulator," according to an article in The Washington Post.

He is also accused of assisting in a plot to carry out an attack on a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons on Prophet Muhammad in 2005. The plot could never be carried out.

(With ANI inputs)

Tahawwur Rana was first arrested in Chicago in 2009. He went to trial in the US District court for the Northern District of Illinois where Headley testified for the prosecution.

He was convicted of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism in Denmark and one count was of providing material support to Lashkar.

Thereafter, US District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, Harry D Leinenweber, sentenced him to a 168-month prison term.

Another charge on Rana is a conspiracy to forge documents for the purpose of cheating and conspiracy to use as genuine a forged document or electronic record.