Mumbai attacks suspect extradited from US lands in India

AFP | New Delhi

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A Pakistan-born Canadian citizen wanted for his role in the deadly 2008 Mumbai siege landed in New Delhi yesterday after his extradition from the United States, Indian law enforcement said.

Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 64, arrived at a military airbase outside the Indian capital under heavily armed guard, and will be held in detention to face trial.

India accuses Rana of being a member of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group, designated by the United Nations as a terrorist organisation, and of helping to plot the attacks.

The National Investigation Agency said it “secured the successful extradition of... Mumbai terror attack mastermind Tahawwur Rana from the US”.

The extradition took “years of sustained and concerted efforts to bring the key conspirator behind the 2008 mayhem to justice”.

US President Donald Trump announced in February that Washington would extradite Rana, who he called “one of the very evil people in the world”.

Rana was flown to India after the US Supreme Court this month rejected his bid to remain in the United States, where he was serving a sentence related to another LeTlinked attack.

New Delhi blamed the LeT group -- as well as intelligence officials from New Delhi’s arch-enemy Pakistan -- for the 2008 Mumbai attacks when 10 Islamist gunmen carried out a multi-day slaughter in the country’s financial capital.