Extradition proceedings of Tahawwur Rana, a criminal involved in the 26/11

Washington: The extradition proceedings, to handover Tahawwur Rana, one of the masterminds of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, to India will start on the 12th of February, in the United States. India’s attention is focused on the proceedings starting in Los Angeles in the United States. Tahawwur Rana is a Pakistan born Canadian businessman and he provided valuable assistance for the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, with the help of David Headley. India has announced him as a criminal and an absconder and has requested the United States to hand him over.

If India gets the custody of Tahawwur Rana, one more evidence of Pakistani involvement in the 26/11 attacks will be in the Indian hands. Therefore, Pakistan agencies are panicking; reports have been received that the Pakistani agencies are making frantic efforts to prevent the handover of Tahawwur Rana to India. In the past, Indian had demanded from the United States to handover David Headley. The United States has not fulfilled this demand. Citing that, claims are being made in favour of Rana, that similarly Rana also cannot be handed over to India.

But the US attorneys have a different opinion. As per these attorneys, Tahawwur Rana and David Headley are to different cases and they should be evaluated separately. Therefore, these proceedings starting on the 12th of February prove vital for India. A few days ago, the United States announced a reward, of five million dollars, on the head of Sajid Mir, one more mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. The US Department of State announced that this award would be given to anyone giving information leading to his arrest or concrete evidence leading to his conviction.

This has increased the pressure tremendously, on Pakistan. The reports regarding Sajid Mir and Tahawwur Rana come as a shock for Pakistan, struggling to get itself delisted from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.