26/11 Accused Tahawwur Rana Being Flown To India On Special Plane

India is extraditing Tahawwur Rana, accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Via a special flight after he exhausted his legal avenues in the United States. The aircraft requires refueling and is expected to arrive tonight or early tomorrow.​ This development follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s denial of Rana’s petition to halt his extradition, with the order stating, “The application for stay addressed to The Chief Justice and referred to the Court is denied.”

The US Supreme Court had denied a similar request in March. Rana had earlier told the US court that he was suffering from an abdominal aortic aneurysm at immediate risk of rupture, Parkinson’s disease with cognitive decline, and a mass suggestive of bladder cancer. He stated that he would not survive long enough to be tried in India. He alleged that national, religious, and cultural animosity in India would cause individuals to target him.

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U.S. Supreme Court Denies 26/11 Accused Tahawwur Rana’s Plea Against Extradition to India

In February, US President Donald Trump met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and announced in a joint press conference that Tahawwur Rana would face justice in India.

Rana is an associate of Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the key conspirators of the November 26 attacks in Mumbai in 2008. He is a Pakistani-origin businessman, physician, and immigration entrepreneur. Authorities have discovered that Tahawwur Rana has connections with the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

A U.S. jury acquitted Tahawwur Rana of providing material support for the 2008 Mumbai attacks but convicted him on two other charges, resulting in a sentence of over 10 years in prison. After contracting COVID-19 during the pandemic, authorities released him from jail on compassionate grounds. Authorities rearrested him for extradition to India. Rana then challenged the extradition plea, but exhausted his legal options.

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