Tahawwur Rana being brought to India in special flight: Sources
New Delhi, Apr 9 (PTI): Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana is likely to be brought to India in a special flight on Thursday after all hurdles for his extradition were removed by the US, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Rana, 64, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, was lodged in the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles.
A multi-agency team has gone to the US and all paperwork and legal issues are being completed with US authorities to bring him to India, they said.
Rana is being brought to India after his last-ditch attempt to evade extradition failed as the US Supreme Court justices rejected his application.
"You are all aware that the US Supreme Court has rejected his plea. As far as extradition of Rana is concerned, at this point, I do not have an update," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
"We will provide you an update at an appropriate time," he said while replying to a question during his weekly media briefing.
Rana is known to be 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 war.
In November 2012, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman among the Pakistani group, was hanged to death in Yerawada Jail in Pune.
At a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the White House in February, President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of a "very evil" man "to face justice" in India.
In his emergency application, Rana had sought a "stay of his extradition and surrender to India pending litigation (including exhaustion of all appeals) on the merits of his February 13 petition."
In that petition, Rana argued that his extradition to India violates United States law and the United Nations Convention Against Torture "because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, the petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture."
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PM Modi is 'fooling people' with regard to Pahalgam terror strike
Mysuru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is "fooling people" with regard to the Pahalgam terror strike in Jammu and Kashmir.
The chief minister also said the prime minister did not attend the all-party meeting conveyed by the Centre, post the attack, but took part in an election rally in Bihar.
"The prime minister should have been there during the all-party meeting. He had gone to electioneering in Bihar. So what is important to him? He is putting ‘Topi’ (hat) on people (meaning fooling people)," Siddaramaiah told reporters here.
He was responding to a query of India’s response to the terror attack.
The chief minister said, "There is no need for war. We are not in favour of it. We should take stringent measures. That’s it. Security should be beefed up."
There should be peace in the country. People should be protected and the Centre should initiate security measures, he added.
To a question about the union government's directives to states to send back Pakistani nationals, the CM said, "We will cooperate. We will send back the Pakistani nationals and inform the Centre about it. Right now, we do not have information about the number of Pakistanis residing in Karnataka."
According to the CM, Pakistani nationals are in the major cities of the state, but most of them are in Bengaluru.
Siddaramaiah reiterated that the Pahalgam terror strike was the outcome of security lapse.
Terrorists opened fire at a tourist location near Kashmir's Pahalgam town on the afternoon of April 22, killing 26 people, mostly tourists.
