US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that the US administration has approved the extradition of Tahawwur Rana, who is one of the plotters of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Trump called Rana “one of the very evil people of the world” during the address of the joint press statement with PM Modi, adding, “He is going back to India to face justice.” Tahawwur Rana is sought in India for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.
PM Modi thanked President Trump for his administration’s approval of Tahawwur Rana’s extradition, as he added, “I am thankful to the president that he has decided to extradite a criminal to India who committed genocide in 2008 in India.”
Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, was cleared by the US Supreme Court a few days ago as it rejected his review petition in the case.
Rana, currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles, is associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks.
On November 26, 2008, a group of 10 Pakistani terrorists went into a rampage, carrying out a coordinated attack on a railway station, two luxury hotels and a Jewish centre, after they sneaked into India’s financial capital using the sea route in the Arabian sea.
As many as 166 people were killed in the nearly 60-hour assault that sent shockwaves across the country and even brought India and Pakistan to the brink of a war.
In November 2012, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman among the Pakistani group, was hanged to death in Yerawada Jail in Pune. India has been pressing Pakistan to punish those involved in the dastardly attack but the trial of the accused in the attack made little headway so far.
(With inputs from agencies)
