“Petition Denied” US Supreme court clears 2008 Mumbai attack key Conspirator to be extradited to India.

Tahawwur Rana, convicted for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks has been cleared by the U.S. Supreme court to be extradited to India in an order issued on 21 January 2025. Beside Hafiz Saeed, Rana has been sought by India for his involvement in 2008 terror attack in Mumbai. The Mumbai terror attack consumed the lives of 166 people, leaving over 200 injured. Rana’s involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks can be linked with his abetment to David Headley. Headley was following the directives on behalf of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Headley, had surveyed and conducted reconnaissance on prominent sites in Mumbai posing as an employee of Rana’s immigration consultancy.

In regards to Rana’s extradition, Ministry of External Affair, India has responded stating that India is collaborating with the US on all the procedural matters “for early extradition” of Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana.

On January 28, the US State Department confirmed that it was assessing the subsequent steps in relation to Tahawwur Rana's extradition to India. “Currently, the names of the officers from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) who will go to the US to take his custody are being discussed. Also, a discussion is going on to use either a chartered plane of the R&AW or a normal flight,” stated a source in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Earlier in his plea, Rana argued that he was tried and acquitted in a federal court in the Northern District of Illinois on charges in regards to the Mumbai attacks. Stating that he would be sent to India for a second trial on the same charges, facing the possibility of a conviction and death sentence, however the US government had argued in court that the petition for a writ of certiorari should be denied. In the United States, certiorari is most often viewed as the writ that the Supreme Court of the United States issues to a lower court to review the lower court’s judgment for legal error (reversible error) and review where no appeal is available as a matter of right.

According to various reports New Delhi made heavy concerted efforts for Tahawwur’s extradition to India during the Biden administration which claimed fruition under US NSA Jake Sullivan’s efforts to conclude the matter. This is propounded the discussions between NSA Ajit Doval and Sullivan in their last meeting in early January.

It is expected that Rana will be placed in Tihar Jail, a central facility following international standards. The Indian government has notified that all the cells of Tihar prison are under the surveillance of CCTV cameras and the prison has well equipped provision for medical facilities available to all inmates.

Rana is expected to remain at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles before he is extradited to India.

Background : Mumbai Terror attack 2008

The Mumbai attack of 26/ 11 consumed the lives of 140 Indians and 26 foreign tourists. American and British passport-holders were murdered in two hotel complexes while the Israeli nationals were tortured and later killed at a Jewish centre. Café Leopold in Colaba, frequented by many foreign national was another target while Chatrapati Shivaji Terminal became the site of largest Indian death toll in the attack. The orchestrated attack was of a jihadist design, the motivation was to wipe all those who belonged to the nations who opposed the Islamic terrorism and to amplify the tension between India and Pakistan. Soon after the attack, the suspicion was drawn towards LeT. Even though it was assumed that the outfit was banned by Pakistan since 2002, LeT was believed to move and operate freely in Pakistan without any form of interference from the Pakistani authorities. Over the course of time, it was evident that Pakistani military had some involvement in regard to the conspired attacks as several contradictory statements were made with denials in regards to the nationality and back ground of the terrorists.

Pakistan’s playbook has consistently relied on deniability to avoid accountability for its Gazwa-i-Hind against India.

“When denial doesn't work, Pakistan takes the plea that the people accused of terrorism are not from Pakistan”, as stated by the Times of Israel.

In regards to the investigation in Mumbai terror attack, the substantial evidence presented by India to prove the nationality of the terrorists as Pakistani, was quickly dispelled by Pakistan by stating that the terrorists were “non-state actors”.

Interesting enough, not much effort has been made by Pakistan to respond against these 'non-state actors'. Instead, it has been observed that the State of Pakistan is habituated in cutting loose and separating itself from these non-state elements through deniability and by lifting all the previous provisions for the protection of these non-state actors.

As for Tahawwur Rana, he was a former military doctor in the Pakistan Army who moved to Canada after gaining citizenship and became immigration service businessman. Rana’s background and affiliation with a certain David Headley has raised eyebrows over Rana’s possible affiliation with ISI and the Mumbai attack of 2008.

Tahawwur and Headley Association

Rana was born and raised in Chichawatni, Pakistan. He acquired his education from the Cadet College Hasan Abdal, a military residential college in Pakistan. It is believed, this is where Tahawwur met Daood Gilani (aka David Headley), another Mumbai terror attack key conspirator.

Gilani and Tahawwur collaborated smuggling heroin to the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) in Pakistan. However, Tahawwur maintained that he was unaware of the drug trafficking carried by Gilani and was simply an “unwitting shield” to Gilani’s activities, while serving as a military doctor in Pakistan. However, it was Rana’s military identity card which was used by Gilani to gain access to the tribal areas.

After migrating to the US In the 90s, Rana assisted Gilani to smuggle drugs through his First World Immigration Services company in Chicago. The company has been known to have other branches in New York and Toronto as well.

By 1997, Tahawwur and his family migrated to Canada and he acquired his Canadian citizenship.

Meanwhile, in 1988 Gilani was arrested in Frankfurt for possession of two kilos of heroin. Gilani was handed over to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). In a trade-off for the intel on his partners, he was sentenced to four years in prison while his two associates were handed down longer sentences.

In 1997, the DEA in a sting operation arrested Gilani for smuggling heroin from Pakistan into US. A deal was struck yet again, DEA dispatched him to Pakistan to work as an informant for the agency and collect intelligence on Pakistan’s heroin trafficking networks.

While working as an informant for the DEA, Gilani used his status as an asset to provide heroin dealers with jailhouse phone calls which were not under surveillance of the DEA agents. Gilani was arrested again as he tried to frame a mentally impaired man for the same. However, he was released from the prison and given probation for his help in the drug trafficking case and for aiding the DEA in the past.

In February 2002, Gilani attended Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) training camps and pursued the outfit’s Jihadist ideologies. In Pakistan, he connected with LeT’s Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, and pledged bayat to the outfit’s war on India. This was supported by the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) as well.

During his early years as a new jihadist, Gilani was arrested several times in domestic violence cases against his wives. In both cases, the wives attested to spousal abuse by him, his involvement and training with terror groups, his anti-Semitism, anti-Hindu prejudice and his appreciation for the Fidayeen (suicide bombers). However, despite the domestic violence complaints against him, Gilani was considered to be off the radar of the authorities who viewed the statements of his wives as a mode of grinding their axe against him.

By 2005, Gilani met Sajid Mir. Mir, a LeT commander who was tasked with the LeT recruitment in the west. Under his guidance, Gilani is assumed the name David Coleman Headley (mother’s last name) legally.

The reason for the name change was to present Headley as a westerner and remove any possible doubt in regards to his Pakistani descent. He was expected to pass as a tourist due to his phenotypic features which looked more western than that of a Pakistani origin. This was done with the intention   to carry any jihadist task without drawing suspicion from the authorities.

In January 2006, Headley met with Adbur Rehman Hashim “Pasha” Syed, a major ranked veteran of the Pakistani military and who was also a LeT militant. Rana was introduced to another Major Iqbal.

Iqbal is believed to have utilized his ISI resources to coordinate the LeT activities.

In Headley’s confession, he stated that both Iqbal and Mir became Headley’s ISI handlers and prepped him for the mission to Mumbai – the terror attack.

Headley also stated to having acquired a sum of $25,000 from Iqbal which he utilized to establish a Mumbai branch office for Tahawwur Rana’s immigration business. After 5 major trips to Mumbai, and scouting the important landmarks in Mumbai, the LeT's plan to orchestrate the terror attack commenced.

It was also revealed that during his intelligence gathering for the ISI, Headley received assistance from personnel in the Pakistan Navy as well.

Like Headley, Tahawwur Rana also maintained that he was in contact with Major Iqbal but has persisted in his claims of having no prior knowledge of the Mumbai attack plan. Contrarily, Headley stated otherwise of having warned Rana prior of the plan as Tahawwur was expected to visit China and India during that time.

Post Mumbai attack

On 18^th October 2009, both Rana and Headley were charged and arrested for conspiring to plot attacks on the offices of a newspaper agency called Jyllands-Posten, which was responsible  for publishing cartoons of prophet Mohammad. During the interrogation, it was revealed that Rana had also visited Mumbai and stayed at the Taj Mahal Hotel, which was one of the sites of the terror attacks in 2008.

His trial commenced on 16^th May 2011 in Chicago, Illinois.

Even though Rana was convicted of abetting with the LeT and for plotting an attack on the newspaper Jyllands-Posten, he was acquitted of charges in relation to the 2008 Mumbai attacks. After this verdict, India stated that the National Investigative Agency (NIA) would charge Rana in a court in New Delhi.

On 17^th January 2013, Rana was sentenced to 14 years in prison. David Headley is still serving 35 years in prison and has cooperated with the agencies in revealing key information in regards to LeT, Al Qaeda and Isis. Unlike Tahawwur, he confessed to his involvement in Mumbai terror attacks and has also provided a detailed his account in a book which he wrote in the prison. In 2011, Headley also confessed against Tahawwur.

The Indian request for extradition of Headley was denied by the US at that time.  However, India continued to seek the extradition of Tahawwur as per the treaty between US and India for the his offences.

At the time, a US court stated that Rana would remain in US custody until the Secretary of State to India made a final decision on his extradition.

In 2020,the Assistant US Attorney John J Lulejian told a federal court in Los Angeles that Rana posed as an unacceptable flight risk and pointed the issues which would stem in regards to Rana and his extradition to India.

What he implied was that if Rana is handed to India, he would surely be eligible for a capital punishment. Since the stakes were against him, Rana would seek other alternatives to escape and to avoid extradition.

Also, if Rana were to abscond to Canada (whose nationality he claims), then  his extradition from Canada to the US would take several years and the likelihood of no certainty from the Canadian government at granting the extradition request in the future would certainly pose as an issue.

But, if Canada allowed the extradition to the US, then based on the US-Canada extradition treaty, US would be prohibited from extraditing Rana to a third country, without the consent of Canada. Under such clauses, Rana became a flight risk.

It is important to mention, US courts have treated both cases of Headley and Tahawwur differently on the grounds that Headley unlike Tahawwur confessed to the charges and had cooperated with the authorities with information and also in the effort to entrap Sajid Mir. Tahawwur, on the other hand has pleaded not guilty and denied the charges against him despite the evidence. In such circumstances, while Headley’s extradition was denied, there remained a possibility for Tahawwur’s extradition to India.

In May 2023, strongly backed by Biden Administration and a verdict by a court in the United States, the extradition of Tahawwur Rana to India was approved.

However, in October, the US Ninth court of Appeals has granted Tahawwur Rana to appeal for a stay on the motion to extradite him to India. He was given until November to file a motion against the extradition and the Government was expected to announce the decision on the matter by 11^th December 2023. However, on 28^th January the US supreme court has denied Rana’s petition and he will be expected to be extradited to India. While Pakistan has failed in making the arrests of the LeT core commanders and Hafiz Saeed’s son is believed to contest in Pakistani elections, it is safe to assume that Rana Tahawwur’s luck might have finally ran out.