- By Ajeet Kumar
- Fri, 11 Apr 2025 11:31 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
Tahawwur Rana, a key accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case, told his friend David Coleman Headley (Headley), that those who rocked the economic capital of India should get an award from Pakistan. Ironically, he demanded the award that Pakistan offered to its soldiers for showing utmost bravery on the ground. He said the 'Nishan-e-Haider' award should be given to the attackers. According to an official release by the US Department of Justice, the intercepted conversation between the duo revealed Rana said that the "Indians deserved it"-- a phrase he used after killing hundreds of innocent civilians in Mumbai.
"In an intercepted conversation with Headley, Rana allegedly commended the nine LeT terrorists who had been killed committing the attacks, saying that “[t]hey should be given Nishan-e-Haider", Pakistan’s “highest award for gallantry in battle," which is reserved for fallen soldiers," the document read.
NIA arrests Tahawwur Rana
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday evening formally arrested Rana, who was brought to India after being “successfully extradited” from the US. A special court in Delhi subsequently remanded him in the custody of the agency for 18 days.
Who is Tahawwur Rana?
Rana had served in the Pakistan Army Medical Corps before emigrating to Canada in the late 1990s and started an immigration consultancy firm. He later moved to the US and set up an office in Chicago. Through his firm, Rana gave cover to Headley to carry out a reconnaissance mission in Mumbai prior to the November 2008 attacks and helped him get a ten-year visa extension, the police official said on Thursday.
230 calls
During his stay in India, Headley used the front of running an immigration business and was in regular contact with Rana. There were more than 230 phone calls between the two during this period, the official said. Rana was also in touch with ‘Major Iqbal', another co-conspirator of the attacks during this period, as per the NIA charge sheet.
Rana himself visited India in November 2008, days before the terror attack.
What happened in Mumbai in 2008
As per the charge sheet filed by Mumbai police against Rana in 2023 in the 26/11 attack case, he lived in a hotel in Powai and had a discussion about crowded places in South Mumbai with a person who has been listed as a witness in the case. Subsequently, some of these places were targeted by the Pakistani terrorists during the deadly attacks that claimed 166 lives.
The terrorists targeted multiple iconic locations in Mumbai, including the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, Leopold Cafe, Chabad House and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station, each of which Headley had scouted in advance.
(With inputs from agency)
