by Atul Cowshish*

Almost 15 years after he had participated in the ISI-sponsored November 2008 terror attacks by Lashkar-e-Taiba in Mumbai, killing 166 and injuring 239, Tahawwhur Rana, a former Pakistan Army doctor serving a jail term in the US, is expected to be extradited soon to India for trail under Indian laws. The US administration has agreed that India has a valid reason to expect his extradition.

Rana (62) had facilitated his friend of Pakistani-origin David Coleman Headley who has eyes of two different colours, to carry out extensive reconnaissance in Mumbai to prepare the ground for the dastardly attacks. Headley, who had changed his Muslim name thinking it would be advantageous, is serving a 35-year sentence in a US prison. Rana was awarded a 14-year sentence for his role in the conspiracy.

India had sought Rana’s extradition in December 2019. A year later, in 2020, the US administration, then led by Donald Trump, submitted before a California court that Rana was eligible for being handed over to India. Rana contested   but his efforts failed in view of evidence against him presented by Washington and New Delhi.

Rana’s extradition is likely that some old controversies might be revived in India. India was in shock at the massive intelligence failure that had allowed a group of 10 LeT men from Pakistan to sail undetected all the way from Karachi to Mumbai in a fishing boat.

No less shocking was the fact that Rana was able to set up business in the heart of Mumbai, at Tardeo. And called it First World Immigration Service Centre. It was ostensibly an office that facilitated visa for its clients but testimonies during the US trial showed that in the five years that Rana’s office functioned from Mumbai it had processed not a single visa application.

Rana, who obtained Canadian citizenship before moving to Chicago in the US to run the alleged visa facilitation service, was able to receive permission to set up a centre in India along with a long-term business visa for himself from the Indian authorities.

It is obvious that he had built useful contacts while in India and therefore had no trouble in securing visa for his friend Headly, who was a frequent traveller not only between the US and India but also the US and Pakistan. He also made trips to Dubai, where he met some of the LeT and ISI operatives in connection with the planned Mumbai mayhem.

After 26/11 attacks, India strengthened surveillance of the sea lanes leading up to Mumbai. It is presumed that Pakistanis would no more be able to hoodwink Indian authorities to open fronts for nefarious ISI activities and provide safe cover to the ISI-trained mercenaries.

The extradition of Rana will be a small consolation for India because there is a long list of people (other than economic offenders), mostly Indian nationals and some Pakistanis, who have managed to dodge the government of India to save themselves from trial in Indian courts. In most cases, a widely held view is that the foreign governments are not very understanding or cooperative when India requests for extradition.

It is, of course, no surprise that many, if not most, of the wanted Indian criminals are lodged in Pakistan—in jails or safe homes provided by the ISI, Pakistan Army’s spy agency. The runaway Khalistani separatists are a special favourite of the Pakistanis. There is no hope of Pakistan ever agreeing to send them to India because Indian fugitives become ‘assets’ for the Pakistanis.

An interesting case is of Mumbai don Dawood Ibrahim who is said to have been provided several safe homes in Karachi. Yet, Pakistan officially denies any knowledge about the whereabouts of Dawood!  

Pakistan being an unfriendly country can be expected to reject Indian demands for extradition of criminal and terrorists but even a ‘friendly’ country like Malaysia plays hardball. A Muslim preacher, infamous for his provocative tirade against the majority community in India, continues to live and carry on with his poisonous preaching in Malaysia.

An entirely different story relates to a former Indian Navy officer, Kulbhushan Jadhav, who is languishing in a Pakistani jail awaiting execution on trumped up charges by Pakistan. Pakistan will not send him home come what may.

He was not provided a fair opportunity to defend himself; a lawyer chosen by the Pakistanis was his counsel. After several requests, he was allowed to meet his wife and mother who flew from India. They were kept at a distance from him and, strangest of all, were not allowed to converse with him in Marathi, their mother tongue.   

The entire story that Pakistan has spun around Kulbhushan Jadhav is fictitious. He is described as a serving officer when he is not. He set up maritime business in Iran years before his arrest after seeking retirement from the Indian Navy. Whether in India or Pakistan or anywhere in the world, serving officers are not allowed to start any business without being discharged.   This is elementary!

Kulbhushan Jadhav was arrested on the border inside Iran by the Pakistanis and quickly brought into Pakistani side of Balochistan. But the Pakistanis say he was inside their territory. Can anyone imagine a ‘serving’ military officer walking into an enemy territory?

As is the Pakistani practice, India is accused of harbouring several Pakistani ‘terrorists’. To make it look genuine, the Pakistanis provide their names. But merely providing some names does not mean the person is a wanted fugitive or a terrorist. More so when over the years Pakistan has miserably failed to provide any credible proof of India training and abetting Pakistani terrorists. Once, a list was flaunted at the UN but the Pakistanis suffered acute global embarrassment when their list failed to attract any attention at the world body.

—* The writer is a Delhi-based veteran journalist