2008 Mumbai attacks accused arrives in India after US extradition

A Pakistani-born Canadian businessman accused of helping to orchestrate the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, arrived in New Delhi on Thursday after the US extradited him in the first such transfer in a terrorism case.

Tahawwur Rana, 64, a doctor-turned-businessman, was extradited in connection with the November 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed more than 160 people.

"The National Investigation Agency on Thursday successfully secured the extradition...after years of sustained and concerted efforts to bring the key conspirator...to justice," said NIA, India's anti-terror agency.

He was accompanied back by Indian security agencies after his petitions challenging the extradition were rejected by the US Supreme Court.

India formally sought Rana's custody in June 2020, and President Donald Trump announced Rana's transfer in February this year during a joint press conference with Modi in Washington.

Rana was sentenced to 14 years in prison in the US in 2013 for providing support to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistani group that India says was responsible for the 2008 attacks.

"As far as our record indicates, he (Rana) did not even apply for renewal for his Pakistani-origin documents for the last two decades," Shafqat Ali Khan, a spokesperson for Pakistan's foreign ministry, said at a media briefing on Thursday.

Rana's lawyer has said that Rana was a "good man and got sucked into something."

Over the course of three days in November 2008, ten heavily armed attackers targeted major landmarks across Mumbai, including two luxury hotels, a Jewish centre and the main train station, killing 166 people.

India has said Pakistan's Lashkar-e-Taiba, which the US State Department has designated a terrorist organisation, orchestrated the attacks. Pakistan denies supporting extremist activities.

Rana was also found guilty in June 2011 of conspiring to attack a Danish newspaper, a plot hatched by the militant group that was never carried out.