India gets Tahawwur Rana: Who are the other accused in 26/11 case?

India has successfully extradited Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a key accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. He will reach India on Thursday (Apr 10) from the United States after over a decade of legal wrangling. A joint team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is reportedly bringing Rana to India after the US Supreme Court rejected Rana's final plea to block his extradition.

Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin, played a role in facilitating the Mumbai terror attack by assisting his associate, David Coleman Headley. Headley, one of the masterminds of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks conducted reconnaissance in Mumbai ahead of the terror attacks. A Pakistan Army doctor, Rana has been linked to Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist organisation. 

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Who are the other accused in 26/11 conspiracy case?

As per NIA chargesheet, the conspirators apart from Rana in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks include David Coleman Headley or Daood Gilani, a US Citizen, resident of Chicago, Illinois, senior functionaries of terrorist outfits LeT and HUJI, namely Hafiz Muhammad Saeed or Tayyaji, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Sajjid Majid or Wasi, Illyas Kashmiri, Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, Major Abdurrehman and ISI officers namely Major Iqbal and Major Sameer Ali.

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What is Rana accused of?

As per NIA chargesheet, between 2006 and 2008, Headley used Tahawwur Rana's company as a front for several visits to Mumbai. According to Headley’s testimony to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Rana permitted the establishment of a Mumbai branch of his travel agency to assist in Headley’s mission on behalf of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

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Tahawwur Rana and David Headley were detained by the FBI at the Chicago airport in October 2009 when they were flying out to execute an alleged  attack on a Danish newspaper that had published controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. However, David Headley later became an approver in the case and testified against Rana during their trial in Chicago. According to Headley, Rana aided Lashkar's plot and let his agency's resources be utilised for terror planning. Headley also alleged that he briefed Rana on the Mumbai mission in 2006, and Rana helped him get his business visa.  

Rana will face India's law agencies 16 years after the Mumbai terror attacks. However, others accused in the case except Ajmal Kasab are at large. Kasab, the shooter was caught alive in Mumbai and was hanged to death at Pune’s Yerwada Jail on November 2012.

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