It was not just Mumbai that terror accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana had visited ahead of the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai.
New Delhi:It was not just Mumbai that terror accused Tahawwur Hussain Rana had visited ahead of the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai. Investigators hope to find some important leads on his travels in parts of northern and southern India, PTI reported.
Rana visited Hapur and Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Kochi, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai with his wife Samraz Rana Akhtar between November 13 and November 21, 2008, the sources said.
They said there could have been a larger conspiracy aimed at targeting other places across the country behind his visits to these places, and the exact details would be ascertained only after his interrogation.
Rana's interrogation would help the probe agencies expose the role of Pakistani state actors behind the 26/11 attacks, and may shed new light on the investigation, the sources said.
During the investigation, the roles of senior functionaries of terror outfits Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) and Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HuJI) — Hafiz Muhammad Saeed alias Tayyaji, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Sajjid Majid alias Wasi, Illyas Kashmiri, and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed alias Major Abdurrehman alias Pasha had emerged, the sources said.
They worked in active connivance with officials from Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), namely Major Iqbal alias Major Ali and Major Sameer Ali alias Major Samir, as per the NIA.
After the completion of its investigation, the NIA filed a chargesheet before a Delhi court on December 24, 2011, against all the accused under the IPC and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for providing logistic, financial and other assistance to David Headly and the other co-conspirators towards the criminal conspiracy to organise terrorist attacks in India.
The NIA also sent extradition requests to the US for the extradition of Headley and Rana, the sources said.
Rana is said to have remained in contact with Major Iqbal, the sources said.
During his first visit to India, Headley spoke to Rana over phone for more than 32 times, they said.
Subsequently, Headley spoke to Rana 23 times during his second visit, 40 times during the third visit, 37 times during the fifth visit, 33 times during the sixth visit, and 66 times during the eighth visit, they said, highlighting his active involvement in the Mumbai attacks conspiracy.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US arrested Rana from Chicago a year after the attacks in October 2009 for providing support for an aborted plan to behead employees of a newspaper in Copenhagen (Denmark), and also for providing material support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which orchestrated the Mumbai attacks, the sources said, adding that Rana, however, was acquitted in the 26/11 case.
