“Indians deserved it. Those Lashkar men deserve Pakistan’s highest gallantry award,
Nishan-e-Haider”. – Tahawwur Rana
Tahawwur Rana: The Man behind the 26/11 Bloodbath
The past week in India, has been abuzz with the activities happening, that are
concerned with and encircle the whole milieu of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the
mastermind of the 26/11 devastating attacks in Mumbai. Aimed at specifically
eliminating as many members of the innocent civilian population, along with serving
police and army personnel; the attacks were so cataclysmic that they drew heavy
global condemnation, over the four days that they continued. Not even a single Indian
can ever forget those horrific visuals of blood,fear, anxiety, killing, that were splashed
across the television screens over the period of the terrorist attack. Famous places like
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, the Oberoi Trident, the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower
Hotel, the Nariman House, the Metro Cinema et al were hideously targeted and
innocent civilians along with foreign tourists were brutally murdered. Honestly,
nobody can ever forget what happened to Moshe Holtzberg, and late IPS officer
Hemant Karkare. And no one will ever forget what happened to the 26/11 hero
Tukaram Omble. Why then, Rana’s frivolous pleas of developing cancers, failing
liver, contacting diseases, should have been considered by the U.S Appellate courts
and the Indian agencies, at their ends?
The Ringleader of the Mumbai Conspiracy
It was established during the investigation that Pakistan-based and ISI (Pakistan’s
Deep State) sponsored Lashkar-e-Taiba was behind the whole occurrence, with active
(and passive) support from their Pakistani handlers, especially the Pakistan-Canadian
citizen and former Army doctor (Captain Rank, Pakistan Army) Tahawwur Hussain
Rana, being the chief plotter and the ringleader of the whole conspiracy. Rana’s
assertions that he single-handedly planned the whole thing can be easily cast aside,
because of his prior working and service in the Pakistan Army. Also, Pakistan
claiming that Rana started engaging in terrorist activities while being a Canadian
citizen, and not while on Pakistani soil, and India should not accuse Pakistan of
support- are the hollowest of claims, that one can ever hear. The Indian government,
and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) through its chargesheet, are very clear
regarding the modus operandi that Rana and Headley followed, along with the
innocuous activities of Samir Ali and Major Iqbal, names that are cropping up now.
Rana repeatedly stating his desire to see those terrorists being awarded with
Pakistan’s highest gallantry award, the Pakistani ecosystem of information warfare
and misinformation tactics, along with collaborating with the deadly terrorist
organisation LeT, and the very liaison of Rana with the Pakistani Army- shouts aloud
of the synergy between Rana and Pakistan itself. The same has been established,
voiced and reiterated by numerous government reports and proceedings of the NIA.
Rana’s Extradition: A win for India, NIA and the Global Legal Jurisprudence
Born in the Chichawatni city of Sahiwal district of Pakistan, Rana was closely
associated with David Coleman Headley, alias Dawood Gilani, a US citizen.
Purportedly saved from extradition to India in exchange of pleading guilty for his acts,
Headley conducted serial and continuous recce of the destinations that had to be targeted. The NIA chargesheet establishes the same via the process of circumstantial
evidence. According to Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan, India’s leading extradition
litigation and criminal law practitioner, also heading the prosecution side against
Tahawwur Rana, stated that Rana’s extradition to India from the US was one of the
most complex cases that he and the NIA has ever handled. The legal intricacies
involved in the present case, the dual citizenship conundrum of Rana, his Canadian
citizenship, the present turbulent relationship between the US and Canada, the current
residency of Rana in the US, the various legal provisions invoked against Rana, and
the simultaneous testing of the double jeopardy provision (both, constitutionally and
according to the US-India extradition treaty) against all odds, was and will remain
fundamental in the present case. This is inevitable to avoid any future global scrutiny
and the successful conviction of Rana. Reportedly, the NIA, the external affairs
ministry of India, the consistent government efforts have resulted in a successful
extradition of Rana to India. Samir Ali and Major Iqbal were said to be in constant
contact with Rana and Headley, the whole time that the conspiracy was being evolved.
Section 121A of the Indian Penal Code, Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act, and Section 6(2) of the SAARC Convention (Suppression of
Terrorism ) Act were invoked against Rana, Headley, and others. The involvement of
a number of terrorist organisations such as Lahkar-e-Taiba and Harkat-ul-Jihadi
Islami made the chargesheet filing and the extradition process lengthier and laced
with complexity.
Demands of Justice: The Road to Conviction
Rana is currently lodged under judicial custody, with the NIA for a period of 18 days.
The number one associate of Headley, Rana is poised to be questioned thoroughly for
his alleged role in all stages of the conspiracy. Analysing the situation geopolitically,
the extradition of Rana is a huge win for India, amidst the current global turmoil.
Canada has not been able to stabilise its political democracy and economic crisis,
since Trudeau’s false accusations on India right after the 2023 G20 Summit. The
recent regime change in Canada has not been able to cope up with Trump’s direct
challenges to annex parts of Canada, tariff it heavily, and landlock it diplomatically,
as well as economically. Amidst all this, Rana was in American custody since his
arrest, and the very discontinuation of talks between America and Canada, even while
the extradition was in process, says a lot about the whole Western Saga. While
Pakistan has alleged no role of its soil in the wrong-doing, the prior working
engagement of Rana in the Pakistani Army, aliases of Major Iqbal and Samir Ali
cropping up periodically, the past relationship between Rana and Headley in Pakistan
itself, the use of naval route from Pakistani borders to carry out the attacks, the NIA
chargesheet laying down the grounds of legally justifiable conviction on the basis of
evidence available and collected- point out towards the rock solid support that
Pakistan provided these terrorists. Add on to these, the roles of LeT and the HuJI in
the same. There is conclusively no doubt left over the involvement of all those named
in the chargesheet by the NIA.
Parting Note
The attacks on the heritage landscape of Mumbai have left scars forever. Not just for
the victims, but also for the general civilian population, that glued to its television sets,
watched the horror unfold. Countless documentaries, movies have been made, books
have bee written, interviews have been given to substantiate and recount the horrors,
for the population globally. This was not done to scar the already scarred, but to push the national, international and global agencies to prosecute those involved and bring
them to justice. Emotions can never be written. Sentences of death and enlarged
punishments can never replace the lives lost. Compensations can never replace men
and women brutally murdered and mercilessly culled. The final throw of gavel for
conviction can never isolate the incessant sounds of bullets that rained on the fateful
day. The calls for justice can never replace the final calls of beloveds lost and dead.
But that does, never mean, that men should be forgiven for something so brutal and
inhumane. That men should be acquitted just out of mercy for a life. That men
involved and those who behaved beastly should not be brought to justice. Each and
every clog of this merciless and disastrous conspiracy at each and every stage should
be, and must be bought to justice, in front of the whole global order. India has arrived,
and nobody, not even the mightiest should try to stir her resolve and test her patience.
And, India is here to stay, forever. The extradition of Rana is just the first step
towards bringing to justice all those who have targeted India in the past and who even
dream of doing this, in the future. In the fight for justice, justness and fairness stand
tall. Because the first promise of the Indian Constitution is- Justice. And it will be
served appropriately to all the perpetrators of the dastardly 26/11 attacks. There is and
there never will be any forgiveness for terrorism and brutal betrayals against humanity.
Let justice be served with justness. And let India, be a role model in the same. Jai
Hind.
