Ahead of PM's India visit, Canada seeks to revoke 26/11 mastermind Tahawwur Hussain Rana’s citizenship
Ahead of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to India, Canada seeks to revoke 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Tahawwur Hussain Rana’s citizenship.
Canadian citizenship to be revoked
In April 2025, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) successfully extradited Rana, the mastermind, to India from the US. The 2008 attack killed 166 people, and over 238 were left injured.
News outlet Global News accessed the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) report, which says that a Pakistan-born businessman’s citizenship is not being revoked for his links to terrorist attacks but for the reason that he lied in his application in 2000. At that time of application, he claimed to have resided in Ottawa and Toronto for four years, also mentioning that he was away from the country for only six days.
Extradited and in NIA custody
And now, it has come to the fore that during that period, Rana was living in Chicago, where he owned several properties and businesses. “Yours is a case in which it appears that you misrepresented your residence in Canada during the application process for citizenship by deliberately failing to declare your absences from Canada,” IRCC wrote to him on May 31, 2024, as quoted in Global News.
It further added, "Your misrepresentation led decision makers to believe that you had met the residence requirements for citizenship, when it appears you had not.”
Rana's role in 26/11 Mumbai terror attack
It was during David Headley's interrogation that Rana's role in the attacks came to the fore. Headley, a Pakistani-American terrorist, mentioned that he had visited India between 2007 and 2008. He highlighted that he had visited India five times and his visa was facilitated by his childhood friend Rana. This was done under the guise of an immigration consultancy.
Headley visited India to carry out his recce to help execute the attack in the financial capital Mumbai, which was later carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists. Rana, who was born in Pakistan, had also served in the army in the medical corps, after which he moved on to doing business in the US.
India-Canada ties to be elevated
During his India visit, PM Carney will first visit Mumbai and then head to capital New Delhi. He will be holding talks with PM Modi with aim to elevate the bilateral ties through partnerships in trade, clean energy, AI, talent exchange, culture and defence.
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