26/11 co-conspirator loses appeal in US court, to be extradited to India

India has been seeking Rana’s extradition since 2019. Rana’s petition in the US Supreme Court was his last legal option to avoid his extradition to India.
Tahawwur Rana
Tahawwur RanaFile
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NEW DELHI: Decks have been cleared for the extradition of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin and a convict in the Mumbai terror attack case, to India after the US Supreme Court recently dismissed his review petition. India has been seeking Rana’s extradition since 2019.

Rana’s petition in the US Supreme Court was his last legal option to avoid his extradition to India. Incidentally, the US Supreme Court’s order came on January 21, a day after Donald Trump took charge as the 47th President of the US.

Rana, 64, is currently lodged at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles.

According to Indian agencies, Rana is an associate of Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, a key conspirator of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. At least 166 people were killed in the attacks orchestrated by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Ajmal Kasab was the only convict executed in the case. Another accused, Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, an Indian operative working for Lashkar terror group, was arrested in 2012 after being identified by Kasab. He is currently in a jail in Mumbai.

Rana had earlier worked as a doctor for the Pakistan Army. He had prior knowlewdge of the attacks, and a federal jury convicted him in 2011 of helping Lashkar with material support.

Officials in New Delhi said Rana’s actual extradition is just a matter of time and once he is brought to India, further interrogation could help unravel the role of Pakistani state actors in the attack.

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