Islamabad, Apr 10 (UNI) In its first response to 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks key plotter Tahawwur Rana’s extradition to India, Pakistan has disowned its former Army officer and doctor, saying he is a Canadian citizen.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan, on being asked about Rana’s extradition to India, said “Tahawwur Rana has not renewed his Pakistani documents for over two decades. His Canadian nationality is very clear.”
A Pakistani-Canadian national, Rana, 64, was convicted in the US for his association with operatives of the banned terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and for providing material support to the group responsible for the Mumbai attacks that killed over 170 people.
Rana is being extradited from the US to India today on board a special flight.
He was incarcerated for 14 years in the US for a foiled 2009 attack on a Danish newspaper for publishing a cartoon of Prophet Mohammad.
However, Rana’s links with officials of the Pakistan Army, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and Lashkar-e-Taiba can prove to be highly damaging and possibly reveal the active involvement of the Pakistani government in the heinous incident.
Rana initially served as a doctor in the Pakistan Army before emigrating to Canada in the late 1990s. After obtaining Canadian citizenship, he settled in Chicago, where he operated various businesses, including an immigration consultancy, according to reports.
Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, prime accused in the 2008 attack, had said that Rana had extended logistical and financial support for the terror attacks and in its run-up.
Headley had conducted a recce of Mumbai before the attacks by posing as an employee of Rana’s immigration consultancy.
