The 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, the main accused in the Mumbai terror attack, Tawwur Hussain Rana had helped co-conspirator David Coleman Headley to get an Indian visa, said an official of the Mumbai Police, familiar with the investigation.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) formally arrested Rana after being extradited from the US on Thursday evening. Before going to Canada in the late 1990s, Rana worked in the Medical Corps of the Pakistani Army and started an immigration consultancy firm. He later moved to America and established an office in Chicago.
The police officer said on Thursday that through his firm, Rana covered Headley to carry out the reconnaissance mission in Mumbai before the November 2008 attacks and helped him to get a ten -year visa extension. During his stay in India, Headley pretended to run the immigration business and was in regular contact with Rana.
The official said that during this period, more than 230 phone calls were made between the two. According to the NIA chargesheet, Rana was also in contact with another co-anxator of the attacks ‘Major Iqbal’ during this period. Rana himself visited India in November 2008.
According to the chargesheet filed by the Mumbai Police against Rana in 2023 in the 26/11 attack case, he lived in a hotel in Powai, and discussed the crowded places in South Mumbai with a person listed as a witness in the case. Subsequently, some of these places were targeted by Pakistani terrorists during deadly attacks, in which 166 people lost their lives.
Terrorists targeted several prestigious places in Mumbai, including Taj Mahal and Oberoi Hotel, Leopold Cafe, Chabad House and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train stations, each of which had already been discovered by Headley of each.
