Tahawwur Rana Canadian, not Pakistani: Pak Foreign Office

Islamabad: Pakistan on Thursday said that Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the mastermind of the deadly 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks successfully extradited to India from the United States, has not renewed his Pakistani-origin documents for the last two decades and should be treated only as a Canadian national.

“On the Tahawwur Rana issue, we have conveyed our position regarding his Canadian nationality. As far as our record indicates, he did not even apply for renewal for his Pakistani origin documents for the last two decades. I reiterate that position,” said Ambassador Shafqat Ali Khan, spokesperson for the Pakistan Foreign Office (PFO), during a weekly press briefing.

India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday announced that it had successfully secured the extradition of Rana “after years of sustained and concerted efforts to bring the key conspirator behind the 2008 mayhem to justice”.

Rana, a 64-year-old Pakistan-born Canadian national brought to New Delhi, was being held in judicial custody in the United States pursuant to proceedings initiated under the India-US Extradition Treaty for his extradition. The extradition finally came through after Rana exhausted all legal avenues to stay the move.

Rana is believed to have had close ties with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and is accused of conspiring with David Coleman Headley, or Daood Gilani, and operatives of designated terrorist organisations, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HUJI), along with other Pakistan-based co conspirators, to carry out the devastating terror attacks in Mumbai in 2008. A total of 166 persons were killed and over 238 were injured in the deadly attacks.

Charges against Rana include criminal conspiracy, waging war against India, murder, forgery, and violations under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).

However, Pakistan has clearly distanced itself from Rana’s extradition issue, with the spokesperson ending his statement by saying, “we will give further updates in due course”, hinting towards Islamabad’s interest in the case.

With Rana’s extradition, India will have a key link to nail Pakistan’s connection to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

Pakistan has all along been denying its involvement despite a series of dossiers presented by the Government of India.

Rana’s involvement in the conspiracy behind the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai was established by his childhood friend and another key accused in the terror case, David Coleman Headley, alias Daood Sayed Gilani.

Headley appeared before a special court in Mumbai through video conference from an undisclosed location in the US in 2016, where he revealed his Pakistan links.

Headley said he was in constant touch with Rana and even took his permission to open a business office in Mumbai as a front for his activities.

The National Investigation Agency had in its charge sheet said that Rana provided logistics, financial and other assistance to Headley and others involved in plotting terror attacks in India.

Rana was convicted in the US for his links to Lashkar-e-Taiba and helping plot an attack against a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of Prophet Muhammad. The court, however, cleared him of the charge of plotting the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Rana was acquitted in the Mumbai case, but the trial exposed his links with Headley.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had said in a statement (January 2013) after Rana’s conviction in 2009 that he had admitted to the terror activities of Lashkar and the Mumbai attacks.

IANS