The verdict in the trial of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, co-accused in the Mumbai terror attacks with David Coleman Headley, is likely to come in earlier than expected as the Chicago businessman is unlikely to testify at his own trial. Rana's attorney Patrick Blegen said his client's defence team was still making a final decision, but that it was unlikely Rana would take the stand.
The trial of Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana who is accused with David Coleman Headley for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks began in Chicago on Tuesday.
With just days to go before United States President Barack Obama arrives in India, a major controversy has erupted over American terror suspect David Coleman Headley, who had allegedly surveyed locations in Mumbai that were targeted by the 10 Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists on November 26, 2008.
"The informal directive came after Pakistani American Lashkar terrorist David Coleman Headley's confession that he recced several targets including Sena Bhavan," a party source said
Pakistani-American Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley's remarks before a Mumbai court that Ishrat Jahan was actually a Lashkar operative could come in handy for former Gujarat top cop D G Vanzara who has been saying all along that the encounter wasn't staged as has been alleged.
Last May, US citizen David Headley confessed to being a spy for the Lashkar-e-Taiba. What no one has tackled yet is whether there are other Headleys out there whose actions threaten India, or any other country. Even with thousands of intelligence agencies scouting for terrorist activities, are we really safer?
Canadian-Pakistani Tahawwur Hussain Rana, indicted on charges of helping plan the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, is expected to be arraigned in a court here on January 21 along with co-accused David Coleman Headley.
An attack on India's National Defence College was discussed by suspected LeT operatives David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who offered praise for the terror outfit LeT and said he "appreciates them from heart", US prosecutors alleged on Monday.
A Lahore-based retired Pakistan army major has emerged as a key link between the Mumbai terror attack suspect David Coleman Headley and his Pakistani handlers who guided him in planning and plotting strikes in India.
Senior Police Inspector Ramesh Mahale tells Sheela Bhatt that the Headley-Rana angle will not affect his case.
Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Tayiba was planning to use an American national to carry out a major terrorist attack in India, US investigating authorities said on Tuesday.
Tahawwur Hussain Rana, Mumbai attacks co-accused, had an ambitious plan to enter Bollywood by launching Rahul Bhatt, son of film director Mahesh Bhatt, in a movie that he wanted to make.
The trial of Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, which began in Chicago on May 17, has witnessed its share of explosive revelations by prime witness David Coleman Headley.Both Rana and Headley are allegedly operatives of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and had planned the terror strike in Mumbai along with the leaders of the terror outfit.Rana, a 50-year-old Chicago businessman, has been charged with planning the attacks, providing material support to the LeT.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba had initially scheduled the Mumbai terror attacks on September 29, but abandoned its plan as attackers got stuck on a rock and the boat in which they were travelling was destroyed, according to unsealed court documents.
A court in New Delhi has sent Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the mastermind behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, to 18 days of National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody. The court cited the need for sustained interrogation to uncover the extent of the conspiracy and the involvement of multiple targets across India, including New Delhi. Rana, a Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman and close associate of 26/11 conspirator David Coleman Headley, was extradited to India after the US Supreme Court dismissed his review plea against his extradition.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba commander Sajid Mir's association with David Coleman Headley will be the primary focus of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Indian security agencies.
Indian investigators would join their Federal Bureau of Investigation counterparts on Monday to question David Coleman Headley, nabbed by FBI for plotting a major terror attack in India at LeT's behest, as fresh inputs indicated that he was planning to visit Pakistan this month.
Pakistan's Consul General in Chicago personally knew both David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, nabbed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for planning to carry out a major terror attack in India at the behest of LeT, the US authorities have claimed.
A total of nine terror sites in Pakistan, including five in Pojk, linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (Jem), were targeted with meticulous planning to avoid civilian casualties.
The NIA, which has been on the trail of American terror operative David Coleman Headley, had been hoping to piece together the terror jig-saw by gaining independent access to Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed, who are alleged to have masterminded the Mumbai carnage.
This was Rana's last legal chance not to be extradited to India. Earlier, he lost a legal battle in several federal courts, including the US Court of Appeals for the North Circuit in San Francisco.
Headley, 55, was pardoned on December 10 and made an approver by additional sessions judge G A Sanap who presides over special cases related to terrorism, including those under the now repealed Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act.
Speaking at a hearing of the Foreign Relations Committee, Maryland Democrat Ben Cardin, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: "There are mixed signals here that are very, very troubling and that the United States needs to be able to have alternatives for carrying out its foreign policy in that region."
Insisting that it had shared with India terror-related inputs it deemed were 'potentially credible' to its national security, the United States on Saturday said it was looking into media reports that Federal Bureau of Investigation had prior knowledge of David Coleman Headley's links with terror groups in Pakistan.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja allowed an application by the NIA seeking permission to examine Mohammed Aslam who was arrested by the Delhi Police's Special Cell from the national capital in August 2009.
In the first of a four-part series ProPublica's Sebastian Rotella reveals how David Coleman Headley turned from a United States Drug Enforcement Administration to a Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative, who played a key role in launching the most dreadful terror attack on Indian soil on November 26, 2008, and how America botched up chances to stop him.
Pakistani terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri belonging to the radical Harakat-ul Jihad Islami group has been indicted in a United States court for the first time in connection with a plot to target a Danish newspaper which had published offensive cartoons of Prophet Mohammad. Kashmiri was charged along with former Pakistani army major Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, who had conspired with David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussein Rana and planned to target Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
Terror suspect Tahawwur Hussain Rana, under investigation for possible links to 26/11, has categorically denied any involvement in the Mumbai attacks, his lawyer said on Monday and asserted that the Pakistani-Canadian "harbours no ill-will" against Indians.
Observing that those who died in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks deserve justice, federal prosecutors have urged the jury of a Chicago court to convict Tahawwur Hussein Rana as there is overwhelming evidence of his involvement. There was overwhelming evidence of Rana not only having knowledge of but also assisting and providing material support to his childhood friend David Coleman Headley in carrying out the attack in November 2008.
The verdict on Tahawwur Hussain Rana is expected by Wednesday. While India is eagerly awaiting the Chicago court's decision, investigators have chalked out a plan to ensure that a strong case is prepared against Pakistan and its Inter-Services agency in the 26/11 case. India may also push for Rana's extradition. Vicky Nanjappa reports
The status hearing of Pakistani born Canadian citizen Tahawwur Hussain Rana, co-accused with David Coleman Headley in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks took in Chicago on Wednesday, even as his lawyer claimed that Indian government officials hadn't approached him yet for access.
'As Rana is not an Indian citizen, our leverage on the US system -- whether it's their judiciary or the executive -- is very limited in that sense.'
Observing that Al Qaeda and its affiliates are still committed to striking the United States, a top American intelligence official has told US lawmakers that lone-wolf and homegrown extremist now poses an equally serious threat to the country.
'If India had used its diplomatic leverage after 26/11, we had lots in our favour but we abandoned it. The world thinks we are not serious about handling terror,' says security analyst Maroof Raza.
Two leading boarding schools located in prominent hill stations in a north Indian state and a few five star hotels in popular tourist spots are targets of Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba, a senior Home Ministry official said on Wednesday.
India's case against Lashkar-e-Tayiba operatives Tawwahur Rana and David Coleman Headly are in limbo since no decision has been taken on whether a team of the National Investigating Agency would be sent to the United States to question them. Rana and Headly were both accused of helping plan the 26/11 terror strike in Mumbai, in which several Americans were killed. While Headley turned into a prime witness for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Rana was acquitted.
Pakistani-Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana was on Thursday acquitted by a US court on charges of abetting Mumbai terror attacks but was convicted for providing material support to the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and helping a terror plot in Denmark.
Tahawwur Rana was on Thursday held not guilty on charges of involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks by a United States federal court which convicted him for providing material support to Pakistan-based terror group LeT and for plotting an attack in Denmark.
NIA sources say that the questionnaire for Rana would be more on the lines of the one prepared for American terror operative David Coleman Headley, but there would be more additions to it once his testimony before the US court is complete
With the arrest of Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley the attack on the offices of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten that published the Prophet Mohammed cartoons was averted. But the masterminds of this attack are the ones who planned and executed the 26/11 strikes -- Sajid Mir, Abu Qahafa, Mazhar Iqbal and Major Iqbal. The US court may have named them conspirators in the Mumbai attacks, but the danger is far from over. They are still at large in Pakistan.
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