A suspect who was detained for helping the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that claimed dozens of lives has been extradited to India by the United States, 17 years after India was shaken by one of the worst atrocities to have occurred on the nation’s soil.
Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a man of Pakistani descent but with Canadian nationality, landed in New Delhi. Rana will be tried in India after the US approved his extradition following years of judicial combat in the case.
India alleges Rana conspired to execute one of the nation’s worst attacks, in which 10 Pakistani men linked to the terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Tayyiba killed over 160 individuals during a four-day spree through Mumbai that started on November 26, 2008.
That day forever remains in the country’s memory and is referred to as India’s 9/11. According to allegations, the militants traveled to Mumbai in a boat from Karachi, a Pakistani port city. They hijacked a fishing trawler and killed its five crew members on board. The men then moored at the seafront near the famous Gateway of India monument and divided into at least three groups to conduct the attacks, police said.
Employing automatic weapons and grenades, they attacked the city’s biggest train station, the upscale Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi Trident hotels, the busy Leopold restaurant, a Jewish community center, and a hospital. Nine of the 10 terrorists were shot by police in a cat-and-mouse game throughout the city. The only surviving gunman, Ajmal Kasab, was executed in 2012.
Death penalty
Rana, who was a resident in the US at the time, is charged by New Delhi with having conspired with the terrorists and given them the intelligence needed to execute their attack. He had earlier denied these similar allegations in a US court.
India’s federal investigative agency has charged Rana with a number of offenses, including trying to wage war, murder and forgery. If convicted, the 64-year-old could be given the death penalty. The nation’s National Investigation Agency approved Rana’s extradition, saying in a statement that he was deported to India after exhausting all legal possibilities of remaining in the US.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened that Rana would “face justice” for his involvement in the “horrific” Mumbai terror attacks, in a statement on Friday.
“The United States has long supported India’s efforts to ensure that those responsible for these attacks are brought to justice. As President Trump has noted, the United States and India will continue working together to defeat the global menace of terrorism,”
Rubio said.
In 2011, an American court acquitted Rana of conspiracy to supply material aid for the Mumbai attackers, but he was convicted of two counts, among them supplying material support to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba.
He was in prison for 14 years in a Los Angeles jail on those charges when his extradition was granted earlier this week. India’s foreign ministry Wednesday confirmed the US Supreme Court had turned down the plea of Rana to delay his extradition, without responding to other questions related to the case.
