Representative Images | Image Source: Emmanual Yogini
Story so far: David Coleman Hyderley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana have been arrested by the FBI for sixteen years, and the National Bureau of Investigation (NIA) submitted the FIR and their FIR, and Rana has been extradited to India. His extradition marks a major victory for Indian investigators, lawyers and diplomats. Rana will now conduct NIA custody and facial trials in India. This will be the third face-to-face trial of Indian terrorists, second only to Ajmal Kasab and Zabiuddin Ansari Alias Abu Jundal, involved in the terrorist attack on November 26, 2008.
What is the evidence against Lana?
U.S. investigators filed a case against Rana, demanding him to conduct a Mumbai attack, planning a Copenhagen attack, and linking to Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let); in the last two cases in 2011, he was convicted. He had filed an extradition order with India, but the U.S. Supreme Court finally rejected the order last week.
The evidence against him is based on three things: First, Rana’s actions in funding and housing Headley and helped him get Indian visas and tickets until 2009, and established a fake identity for him as a representative of Rana’s Travel and Immigration Bureau. In November 2008, a few days before the attack, Rana and his wife traveled to Mumbai and other Indian cities. Second, Headley’s testimony was part of a plea deal against Rana, apparently noting that Rana was aware of the 26/11 conspiracy in 2006 and helped Headley be willing to conduct reconnaissance operations and celebrate the attack. Rana denied this and was eventually acquitted in a U.S. case. Third, the FBI interception of Rana’s conversation with Headley, including a specific meeting with “complices” in Dubai in September 2008, when he was told that the attack was about to take place.
What is the angle of Pakistan?
After Rana was extraditioned, Pakistan’s foreign ministry tried to distance himself from him, believing that he had occupied Canadian citizenship in 1997 and had not renewed his papers since. Born in Punjab Province, Pakistan and attending a military school in Hasan Abdal, Rana first met Headley. He joined the doctor in the Pakistani army and was promoted to colonel before he was inexplicably traveling to Canada, claiming to be sick. Pakistani troops declared him a deserter, and Lana claimed that Heidley told him that he would use his connections to clean up Lana’s records, which is why he agreed to help him. Headley said in his testimony that Rana kept in touch with Letlers throughout the action plan. The question is whether Lana can point out a more direct link between Pakistan and the 26/11 conspiracy in India.
What about the trial in Pakistan?
After initially pursuing evidence in 26/11 and promising India cooperation, the Pakistani government almost abandoned it, even though the trail brought commanders, including Hafiz Saeed, close at hand and could allow us to use deputy in Pakistan’s intelligence agencies. However, between 2009 and 2013, the Pakistani Federal Investigation Agency managed to collect important evidence about the case, and then Director-General Tariq Khosa listed in an article in Pakistan dawn newspaper. It turns out that Kasab has been trained at Let Camp in Thatta, Sindh, and the ship used by the terrorists is traced to a store in Karachi where there is a surgical staff paying for it. More importantly, Karachi’s operating rooms issued direct orders to the terrorists from there. These findings share with India the Kasab trial. However, Pakistan stopped cooperating when India tried to match the dubbed recordings of the OPS room with those like Hafiz Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.
Has the United States held anything from India?
Questions about what U.S. authorities know about the program, given that they shared many intelligence alerts about terrorist attacks by November 2008. Headley is a “dual agent”, an informant of the U.S. drug law enforcement agency (DEA), and has done intelligence through him or through FBI Inters, and implemented intelligence. Of course, it is strange that even though the FBI was tracking Headley’s phone calls and actions, they did not remind Indian authorities to plan more attacks when they returned to India after the attack in early 2009. He was arrested when he was about to leave Denmark for an attack in September 2009.
publishing – April 13, 2025 02:34 AM IST
