India Got Tahawwur Rana but the Real 'Masterminds' of 26/11 Remain Out of Reach

Justice for 26/11 attacks remains elusive as it is Headley, Lakhvi and Saeed who are key, writes Harinder Baweja.

Does Tahawwur Rana's long overdue extradition from the US really mean justice for the kin of 166 victims killed in the 26/`11 Mumbai attacks?

(Photo: Vibhushita Singh/The Quint)

A special plane carrying Tahawwur Hussain Rana, accused as a conspirator in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, touched down in India amid major claims of his extradition being a “big diplomatic success.” The question, however, is: will Rana’s trial by Indian courts provide a sense of justice to the families of the 166 innocent people killed in India’s financial nerve center in 2008?

The Mumbai attacks, or ‘26/11’ as they are often referred to, remain one of the most audacious terrorist assaults on Indian soil. Ten terrorists sailed the high seas from Karachi to Mumbai and held the city hostage for a nerve-wracking 78 hours, when bombs and bullets claimed a high toll, also killing three senior police officials including Hemant Karkare, the head of Mumbai’s Anti-Terrorism Squad.

Rana’s extradition has prised open a wound that is now 17 years old. Justice delayed is justice denied, it is often said.

In this particular case, Rana may well be able to shed some fresh light on how the attacks were planned. But he, by no means, can be referred to as a key conspirator.

The key conspirators, who remain beyond the reach of diplomatic corridors and the country’s courts, are nowhere within the grasp of the Indian law or the executive. Before we spell out the roles played by three key conspirators associated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) – David Coleman Headley, Hafiz Saeed, and Zakiur-Rahman Lakhvi – let us examine where Rana fits in the 26/11 puzzle.

Piecing Together a Tragedy

The 63-year-old is accused by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), for aiding and abetting the surveillance carried out by his friend and associate, David Headley. Rana, in fact, allowed his childhood friend to use his company as a front on all his trips to Mumbai, where he surveyed potential targets like the iconic Taj Hotel. Rana and Headley studied at the Cadet College Hasanabdal in Pakistan. 

Rana allowed Headley to use his consultancy firm, World Immigration Services, which he started in Chicago. Headley opened a branch in Mumbai, with Rana’s consent, and used the firm as a cover on all the eight trips he made to Mumbai.

He stayed undetected by Indian intelligence agencies largely because he had an American passport.

While his father was a Pakistani citizen, his mother was American. Born Daood Geelani, he later changed his name to David Coleman Headley and was careful to use his mother’s name in his passport.

Rana is an important link in the 26/11 chain. He knew that Headley was working with the terror outfit LeT—and he also knew that his friend was going to Mumbai for surveillance missions. To that extent, Rana is guilty of being a part of the conspiracy but he is far from being a mastermind. 

The masterminds – as underlined in several dossiers submitted to Pakistan, where the entire conspiracy was hatched – are Headley, LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, and LeT operational and military head, Lakhvi. There is another name, that of Major Iqbal, believed to be an officer in Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the ISI, to whom Headley reported. 

Why Rana Cannot be a ‘Mastermind’

To understand the difference between Rana and the masterminds, it is important to read what former home secretary GK Pillai told The Quint. “Rana has been extradited because he has nothing to reveal about the Americans. Headley would have been a prize catch but the Americans quickly entered into a plea bargain with him after his arrest in 2009. He admitted to his role in 26/11 and turned an approver on the express condition that he would not be extradited to India.”

According to Pillai, who took over as the Union home secretary in June 2009, seven months after the Mumbai attacks, Rana’s extradition and trial will now be “used to score political points and to bolster the argument that the (Narendra) Modi government focusses sharp attention on India’s security interests.” The one value addition Rana’s interrogation could lead to is some fresh information on Headley and his contacts with the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), for whom he worked as an agent. 

It is well-known that Headley, who once spied for the DEA, was also a trusted lieutenant of the LeT.

After each reconnaissance mission in Mumbai, where he mapped GPS locations to help the 10 terrorists alight at Badhwar Park, a part of Colaba’s coastline, Headley would visit Pakistan to update the LeT hierarchy and his ISI handler, Major Iqbal. The reason why Pillai is of the view that Rana may divulge fresh information on Headley is because when the NIA team flew to America to interrogate the Pakistan-born-American-terrorist, access was granted on the condition that the FBI would be present through the NIA’s grilling of Headley. 

The Americans stayed protective of their ‘agent’, who was sentenced to a 35-year prison term for his involvement in 26/11, but as Pillai told The Quint,

“The Americans only protect their own self-interests. They told us about Headley only after he had made another visit to Mumbai, a few months after the terror strikes that brought the city to a standstill. I took up the matter with them in very strong terms.”

From FBI to NIA

Ironically, Rana – now in Indian custody on the condition that he will not be tortured or ill-treated – was convicted in the US for his links to the LeT but was cleared of charges accusing him of planning the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. His trial in Chicago, however, brought his links with Headley into the public domain.

After Rana’s conviction in 2009, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had said in a statement that he had admitted to knowing that Lashkar was a terrorist organisation.

According to the statement, “In the early summer of 2006, Headley and two Lashkar members discussed opening an immigration office in Mumbai as a cover for his surveillance activities. Headley testified that he travelled to Chicago and advised Rana, his long-time friend since the time they attended high school together in Pakistan, of his assignment to scout potential targets in India.

"Headley obtained approval from Rana, who owned First World Immigration Services in Chicago and elsewhere, to open a First World office in Mumbai as cover for his activities. Rana directed an individual associated with First World to prepare documents supporting Headley's cover story and advised Headley how to obtain a visa for travel to India, according to Headley's testimony, as well as e-mails and other documents that corroborated his account." the statement added.

Rana’s name was first mentioned by the NIA in 2011. The agency, which now has a chance to interrogate him, will also be asking him about his trip to India – 10 days before 26/11 – wherein he visited Agra, Mumbai and Cochin. 

Headley corroborated details about Rana, via videoconferencing, from an undisclosed location in America, while testifying before a special anti-terror court in Mumbai, for an ongoing trial against Abu Jundal who was present in the control room in Pakistan, from where Lakhvi was directing the ten terrorists who wreaked havoc at several locations in Mumbai, including the Taj Hotel and Chabad House in Nariman Point. In his deposition, Headley confirmed that he visited India eight times before 26/11 and once, after. 

When public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam asked Headley about the ISI's role in the Mumbai attacks, he gave details of Major Iqbal.

He also said – and this is important – that he joined the LeT in 2002 and trained under Hafiz Saeed and Lakhvi, the two key plotters and masterminds of the 26/11 attacks.

The NIA’s interrogation of Headley in June 2010, in the presence of FBI officials leaves no room for doubt about Hafiz Saeed’s role, and I quote, “Major action of LeT is done only after the approval of Hafiz Saeed. Headley maintains that Hafiz Saeed had full knowledge of Mumbai attacks and it was launched only after his approval. Headley believes that Hafiz Saeed never acknowledges it publicly, though he remains abreast with each and every stage of planning and execution.”

Headly, Lakhvi & Saeed

Let us now focus on Lakhvi, another mastermind and key plotter, whose voice directing the terrorists was recorded by the intelligence agencies, while the attacks were ongoing. It is difficult to forget the instructions he kept shooting. “Set the curtains on fire…” he once told the terrorists who had entered the Taj Hotel. At Nariman House, he had asked for summary executions of hostages, alerting the terrorists to the fact that the National Security Guards were being parachuted to the roof of Chabad House. 

Several journalists – including me – had accessed NIA’s interrogation of Headley and this is what the report said: After the Mumbai attack, Zaki (Lakhvi) was arrested and kept in Adiala jail. The ISI DG, Sujja Pasha had claimed before Headley that he had met Zaki when the latter was in the jail.

That is how important Lakhvi was. The topmost ISI officer visited an incarcerated terrorist.

Lakhvi got bail subsequently but NIA officials told me that Lakhvi had free access to a phone while in jail and that his family too was free to visit him. He even fathered a child while in prison.  

While Lakhvi’s whereabouts are unknown, his patron Saeed has been convicted by a Pakistani court – not for his role in the Mumbai attacks – but on money laundering charges. According to Pillai, both may be in the friendly custody of the ISI, living in guest houses and as guests of the Pakistan government. Headley too, he believes, may have been given a new identity and a new address.

Rana’s extradition, therefore, while being a step forward, is only just that: one step forward. The families of those who died in Mumbai got some closure when Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist was arrested, tried and hanged in November 2012. 

The clamour – mainly on television – for Rana’s hanging has already begun but it is important to remember that true justice will be served only when the masterminds are brought to book. That, however, is a herculean task. Rana is in but it is Headley, Saeed and Lakhvi who are key. The Americans will not part with their agent and Pakistan has ignored all the dossiers submitted by India, calling them, “a piece of literature.” 

That is the bitter truth. There is another fact too: India and Pakistan don’t have an extradition treaty. That too is unimportant because Pakistan will never let go of their assets or non-state actors as they are called.

Postscript: Former union home secretary GK Pillai spoke of America’s duplicity. Here’s another example: The US declared a $10 million bounty for information on Hafiz Saeed in 2012. He continued to make public appearances and threaten both India and America even after. Picking him up was easier than killing Osama bin Laden, who was hiding for years. But then, one nation’s terrorist is not necessarily another country’s terrorist too.

(Harinder Baweja is a senior journalist and author. She has been reporting on current affairs, with a particular emphasis on conflict, for the last four decades. She can be reached at @shammybaweja on Instagram and X. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)