NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency has released the first photo of Mumbai terror attacks plotter Tahawwur Hussain Rana after he arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport.
In the first photo, Rana, who arrived in India in a special plane from Los Angeles, US. He was seen with three NIA officials who seem to be taking him somewhere.
With this photo, NIA said that they have formally arrested Rana following his successful extradition from the US and added that he was escorted to New Delhi by teams of NSG and NIA, comprising senior officials.
The NIA investigation team arrested Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin living primarily in Chicago (US), at the airport soon after he emerged from the airplane, after completing all the necessary legal formalities.
“With the coordinated efforts of India’s ministry of external affairs and ministry of home affairs, along with the relevant authorities in the United States, NIA has worked closely with other Indian intelligence agencies through the entire extradition process, which marked a major step in India’s efforts to bring individuals involved in terrorism to justice, irrespective of which part of the world they had fled to,” NIA said in a statement.
The statement further read, “Rana was being held in judicial custody in the US pursuant to proceedings initiated by NIA under the India-US Extradition Treaty. The extradition finally came through after Rana’s various litigations and appeals, including an emergency application before the U.S. Supreme Court, were rejected with the active assistance of U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, U.S. Marshals Service, FBI’s Legal Attaché Office in New Delhi, and U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Legal Adviser for Law Enforcement.”
Hailing, MEA and MFH, NIA said that their diligent and persistent efforts culminated in securing the surrender warrant for the fugitive, leading to his eventual extradition.
Rana is accused of conspiring with David Coleman Headley @ Daood Gilani, and operatives of designated terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and 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 injured in the deadly attacks.
Both LeT and HUJI have been declared as terrorist organisations by the Government of India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
