How Tahawwur Rana helped identify key targets of 26/11 attack: ‘Lashkar functioned more as spy network'

Mint

14 hours ago

One of the conspirators of the 26/11 attack, Tahawwur Rana, revealed details of how he helped orchestrate the Mumbai terror attack in 2008 that left over 160 people dead.
Sources in the Mumbai Police crime branch told NDTV that during the interrogation, Rana shared how he helped David Coleman Headley, the mastermind of the attacks, identify key targets of attack.
In April this year, the US extradited 'convicted terrorist' Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a Canadian citizen and native of Pakistan, to stand trial in India on 10 criminal charges stemming from his alleged role in the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.
According to NDTV sources, Rana said that he completed an MBBS course in 1986 from the Army Medical College in Pakistan's Rawalpindi and was commissioned as a Captain doctor in the Pakistani Army in Quetta.
He was posted in sensitive regions such as Sindh, Balochistan, Bahawalpur, and Siachen-Balotra, the report added.
During the time in Siachen, Rana reportedly developed pulmonary edema, which led to his absence from duty. He was then declared a deserter. 'Pulmonary edema' is an abnormal condition that causes a fluid buildup in the lungs.
Rana had earlier said that he had agreed to be part of the terror plot because David Headley had assured that he would help clean Rana's records.
Rana further informed that Headley had attended three Lashkar-e-Taiba training camps between 2003 and 2004. The terrorists quoted Headley as telling him that Lashkar functioned more as a spy network than an ideological outfit, NDTV reported.
Rana had reportedly visited India in November 2008, days before the terror attack. He had stayed at a hotel in Mumbai's Powai on the 20th and 21st. Just before the strike, he left for Beijing via Dubai.
According to a 405-page supplementary chargesheet filed by the crime branch in 2023, Rana helped Headley collect information about crowded locations like Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus.
As many as 14 witnesses confirmed his role.
Rana blamed the Indian Embassy when asked about forged Indian documents that aided the terrorists, NDTV reported.
The investigation, however, revealed that Rana helped Headley enter India using false documents.
Rana reportedly admitted to knowing Pakistani officials Sajid Mir, Abdul Rehman Pasha, and Major Iqbal, all accused of planning the attacks.
He is learned to have actively coordinated with Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Pakistani spy agency ISI.
Between November 26 and 29, 2008, 10 LeT terrorists carried out a series of 12 coordinated shooting and bombing attacks in Mumbai.
'They infiltrated the city by sea and then broke into teams, dispersing to multiple locations,' the White House said earlier.
Attackers at a train station fired guns and threw grenades into crowds. Attackers at two restaurants shot indiscriminately at patrons. Attackers at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel gunned people down and detonated explosives. They also shot and killed people at a Jewish community center.
After the attacks were complete, Rana allegedly told Headley that the Indians 'deserved it.'