Tahawwur Rana, wanted in connection with the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, is being flown to India. He lost his legal battle against extradition in the US. Rana is expected to be produced before a Delhi court on Thursday.
Rana is accused in a conspiracy case filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people. He is being brought back on a special flight, which is expected to land this afternoon.
Who is Tahawwur Rana?
Tahawwur Hussain Rana was born on January 12, 1961, in Chichawatni, Punjab, Pakistan. He studied at Cadet College Hasan Abdal, where he became close friends with David Headley, who later became a co-conspirator in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Rana joined the Pakistan Army Medical Corps and served as a captain-general duty practitioner.
In 1997, he left the military and moved to Canada with his wife, who is also a doctor. Both Rana and his wife became naturalised Canadian citizens in 2001.
He then moved to Chicago and started several businesses, including First World Immigration Services, which had offices in Chicago, New York, and Toronto. He also founded a ‘Halal slaughterhouse’ that processed goats, sheep, and cows according to Islamic laws.
Rana owns a home in Ottawa, Canada, where his father and brother live. His father was a school principal near Lahore, and one of his brothers is a psychiatrist in the Pakistani military, while another is a journalist for a Canadian political paper.
The 64-year-old was also involved in a terror plot targeting the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten for publishing cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in 2005. The plan, codenamed the “Mickey Mouse Project,” aimed to behead the newspaper’s staff in Copenhagen and throw their heads onto the street. Rana worked on this plot alongside David Headley. The attack couldn’t be carried out after Headley was arrested before it could take place.
Rana allegedly helped Headley set up a front office in Mumbai used for planning the 26/11 attacks. According to the NIA chargesheet, Rana provided logistical and financial support for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166 people. He was arrested in the US in 2009, and after exhausting all legal options against extradition, he is now being brought to India.
