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Flight carrying 26/11 accused Tahawwur Rana departs US, to land in Delhi tomorrow

by Trans World Features | @twfindia 09 Apr 2025, 12:52 pm

A special flight carrying 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana departed from the United States on Wednesday, media reports said.

He will land in Delhi on Thursday afternoon.

The National Investigation Agency will formally arrest Rana as soon as he sets foot on Indian soil, reports said.

The officials had left India for the US on Sunday after they received the confirmation of the 'surrender warrant' which requires a fugitive criminal to be surrendered to a foreign state, reports said.

The US Supreme Court earlier this month rejected Rana's plea seeking a stay in the extradition order.

A Canadian national of Pakistani origin, Rana had earlier filed an "emergency application for stay" with an Associate Judge of the US Supreme Court and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit.

Rana had claimed he would be tortured in India as he is a Muslim of Pakistani origin.

He argued that his extradition would pose a severe health risk.

However, his petition was denied by the US Supreme Court last month, too.

Rana, a known associate of Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, is accused of facilitating the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that left 166 dead.

Headley, who turned approver, testified in a US court that Rana helped him conduct reconnaissance of key targets in Mumbai between 2007 and 2008.

Though Rana was acquitted in the US in 2011 of direct involvement in the 26/11 attacks, he was convicted of providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba and aiding a terror plot in Denmark.

About 26/11

The 2008 Mumbai attacks, also referred to as 26/11, were a series of terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic terrorist organisation based in Pakistan, carried out 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks lasting four days across Mumbai.

Eight of the attacks occurred in South Mumbai at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai Chabad House, The Oberoi Trident, The Taj Palace & Tower, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital, The Nariman House, the Metro Cinema, and in a lane behind the Times of India building and St. Xavier's College.