26/11 plotter Tahawwur Rana : 26/11 conspirator Tahawwur Rana was extradited from the US and brought to Delhi by a special plane. Sources said that Tahawwur Rana, the mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, reached Delhi on Thursday after being extradited from the US. Rana was brought by a special plane along with a joint team of Indian intelligence and investigation officials. Tight security arrangements have been made in the national capital, a convoy of bulletproof vehicles and armed commandos is deployed at the Palam technical area of Delhi airport, where his plane landed.
The convoy will take Rana to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) headquarters, where a high-security interrogation cell has been set up. Rana will face trial for his role in the 26/11 attacks, in which 166 people were killed during the three-day siege of Mumbai.
Pakistan has distanced itself from Tahawwur Rana, an accused in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, saying he is a Canadian citizen who has not renewed his Pakistani documents for more than 20 years. Rana is being extradited to India after the US Supreme Court approved the move. The NIA will take him into custody to face charges related to his role in supporting Lashkar-e-Taiba in the Mumbai attacks.
64-year-old Rana was born in Pakistan but is a Canadian citizen. He is one of the main conspirators of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. American citizen David Coleman Headley alias Dawood Gilani is a close associate of the.
He had allegedly spoken to conspirator David Coleman Headley 231 times during his eight visits. A multi-agency team comprising officials from two intelligence organisations, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and a group of psychologists specialising in criminology is scheduled to begin questioning him immediately on his arrival.
On November 26, 2008, a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists, after infiltrating into India's financial capital using the sea route in the Arabian Sea, carried out coordinated attacks on a railway station, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre. The nearly 60-hour attack killed 166 people, shocking the entire nation and even bringing India and Pakistan to the brink of war. In November 2012, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only surviving gunman from the Pakistani group, was hanged in Pune's Yerwada jail. Will justice proceed swiftly in Rana's case?
Ajmal Kasab, who was 25 when he was hanged, was hanged in Pune's Yerawada jail on November 21, 2012. The operation was kept so secret that even senior Mumbai police officials were not aware of it until it happened. The hanging came just two weeks after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Kasab's mercy petition. The then home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde signed the order and November 21 was set as the date for the hanging. Shinde said, "We need to keep such things secret, but I had told the country that we would act." The Indian High Commission in Islamabad informed Pakistan about the hanging and Kasab's family was also informed. But Pakistan did not claim his body.
PC:IndiaDaily
