B.RAMAN
Tahawur Hussain Rana, of the Chicago cell of the
Lsshkar-e-Toiba (LET) and the principal accomplice of David Coleman Headley,
has already been sentenced by a Chicago court to 14 years in prison for his
association with Headley and the LET in the abandoned plans to blow up the
office of a Danish newspaper in Copenhagen which had published caricatures of
the Holy Prophet.
2.Curiously, he has not been convicted for his role
in the Mumbai blasts of 26/11 despite the fact that he had facilitated the
frequent visits of Headley to India at the instance of the LET to collect
operational intelligence and, according to his admission, was aware of the
impending terrorist strikes in Mumbai even though had no role in it. According
to him, a retired Pakistani Army officer told him of the impending strike
during a meeting in Dubai before he flew to China on his way back to Chicago.
3.This was sufficiently strong evidence for
convicting him as an accomplice before the act, but this aspect seems to have
been ignored by the prosecution and the court. This could open the door for the
Government of India moving for his extradition since the bar of double jeopardy
may not be attracted. Under this, a person cannot be convicted twice for the
same offence.
4.Even though officials of the National Investigation
Agency (NIA) have been quoted in sections of the media as saying that they
would move for his extradition, I have doubts whether any serious efforts would
be made by the NIA to get him to India.
5.Headley is to be sentenced for his involvement in
the Mumbai and Copenhagen cases and his co-operation with the LET and suspected
officers of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) by a Chicago court on
January 24,2013. Since his trial is based on a plea bargain with the USA’s Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) on the basis of his total confession, the FBI has not sought the death
sentence for him. The FBI has also reportedly made a commitment that he will
not be extradited to India. He is, therefore, expected to be sentenced to a
prison term likely to be more than that awarded to Rana.
6. Headley and Rana were the tip of the Chicago
iceberg of the LET which facilitated the 26/11 terrorist strikes in Mumbai by
the LET and ISI masterminds in Pakistan. The FBI and the NIA, whose officials
were allowed by the FBI to question Headley in FBI custody, were able to
collect details regarding the Pakistani links of Headley and Rana.
7.The hidden iceberg itself consisted of the
contacts of Headley and Rana in the Indian Muslim community who facilitated
their frequent clandestine travels to India for helping the LET leaders in
Pakistan and the ISI in planning and executing the 26/11 strikes. Surprisingly,
neither in the narrative of the FBI nor in that of the NIA is there much
reference to the Indian cells of Headley and Rana. No attempt has been made to
identify them and question them.
8. There has been a huge cover-up of the LET
iceberg in India that helped Headley and Rana. While the NIA has shown
considerable persistence in repeatedly questioning a few Hindus who had
allegedly indulged in some acts of reprisals against Muslims in the Malegaon and
Samjauta Express explosions, it has
scrupulously avoided identifying and questioning the contacts of Headley and
Rana in the Indian Muslim community.
9.Indian analysts and political parties have not
shown much interest in exposing this cover-up by the partisan Ministry of Home
Affairs and demanding an end to this. One must raise this issue strongly and
demand thorough enquiries into the matter. (23-1-13)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For
China Studies. Twitter: @SORBONNE75 )
