The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which has been granted 18-day custody of Tahawwur Rana, the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack conspirator extradited to India from the US, is to be confronted with disclosures about his role by Lashkar-e-Taiba scout David Coleman Headley.
Rana is being questioned by investigators of the NIA and officials of the Intelligence Bureau at the NIA headquarters.
Sources in the NIA told The Indian Express Friday that Rana, who was brought to Delhi Thursday evening and produced before a court for grant of custody, will also be confronted with his own testimony given to the Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI) and the Northern District Court in Illinois.
“He will be put through a fresh interrogation on those facts. The NIA had been granted access to Headley, but not Rana. So, the agency is questioning him for the first time. The attempt is to see if he can reveal more India-specific information or details that he may not have revealed to the FBI,” a senior security establishment officer said.
He stands accused of planning and providing logistical support for the 26/11 attacks by opening a branch of his Chicago-based immigration business in Mumbai to provide Headley with a cover for reconnaissance ahead of the attack in November 2008.
Arrested by US authorities in Chicago in 2009, Rana was subjected to detailed questioning by the FBI. The Northern District Court in Illinois prosecuted him for providing material support to terrorism in India; conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism in Denmark; and providing material support to Lashkar-e-Taiba. He was later acquitted of the first charge.
“It is now the NIA’s job to prepare the case with such evidence that he is convicted. We have our own perspective of the 26/11 attacks and the large conspiracy of the LeT to attack India. We hope more information can be gleaned from him,” another officer said.
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Sources said a matter of special interest to the agency is Rana’s travels in India ahead of the Mumbai attack.
From Headley’s testimony in the US and FBI case papers, it emerged that days before the attack, Rana visited India between November 13 and November 21, 2008. During his stay in India, Rana and his wife visited several places including Hapur, Delhi, Agra, Kochi, Ahmedabad and Mumbai.
“He told US authorities that he had made the visit for terror recruitment. We need to verify this fact. We also need to find out what other places he visited and what he did there. If he was here for recruitment, who all did he get in touch with is of interest to us,” an NIA officer said.
The agency is also looking at what kind of financial support Rana provided to Headley or to other activities of the LeT in India.
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“We have to also find out if there were other terror attacks planned. With the assistance of Rana and on the instructions of his handlers in Pakistan, Headley had made a reconnaissance of multiple locations of importance in India including the National Defence College, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Chabad Houses across India, defence installations and Hindu places of worship among others,” the officer said.
A Pakistani-Canadian who once served in the Pakistan Army Medical Corps, Rana will also be questioned on his contacts in the Pakistan ISI and the role of its officers in orchestrating the 26/11 attack. He had been in touch with plotters Major Iqbal, Major Sameer Ali, LeT operatives Abdur Rehman and Sajid Mir.
