Sleuths grill Rana, plan to collect voice sample
The interrogation of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana continued for the third day on Sunday at the National Investigation Agency (NIA) headquarters in Delhi, with the agency trying to unravel the conspiracy.
According to official sources, Rana has now started cooperating with the agency, unlike his first day of custody.
The extensive questioning covers the entire conspiracy hatched around 2005 when Daood Gilani, alias David Coleman Headley, a US citizen currently in a prison there, was directed by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to conduct a reconnaissance in India.
In a significant development, the NIA plans to collect Rana’s voice sample to match it with intercepted call recordings from the time of the attacks. The move is aimed at determining whether Rana was giving instructions over the phone during the November 2008 attacks that claimed 166 lives in Mumbai.
Rana, a Pakistani-origin Canadian national and former army doctor, is accused of facilitating reconnaissance missions for the Mumbai attacks by allowing co-conspirator Headley to use his immigration business as a cover.
The sources said the agency was trying to establish the identity of a person whom “Rana met in Dubai”, as they suspected that the man was an operative of the Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Meanwhile, the NIA plans to confront Rana with a “protected witness” in the coming days with whom he was in contact in India before the Mumbai attacks. According to the sources, this witness is believed to have arranged logistics for Headley in Mumbai and is expected to help establish Rana’s role in facilitating the LeT’s planning for the deadly attacks.
Interrogators are closely scrutinising Rana’s visits to Delhi, Hapur and Agra in 2008, suspecting that these trips may have had ulterior motives. They are particularly interested in extracting information about Rana’s Indian associate, referred to as “B”, as well as certain relatives of his wife, Samraz Rana Akhtar, who accompanied him during the trip.
Of particular concern is the couple’s stay at Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai — one of the primary sites targeted during the 2008 terrorist attacks that claimed 166 lives. The duo also travelled to Kochi and Ahmedabad during their visit.
The authorities are now probing whether these journeys were part of a larger reconnaissance effort to plan an attack similar in scale and impact to the 2008 Mumbai assault, potentially designed to garner widespread international attention.
The NIA’s interrogation also aims to uncover details about Rana’s connections with the ISI, funding channels for the attacks, and potential plots targeting other Indian institutions in 2008.
Rana has been provided with a copy of the Quran at his request and is reportedly offering namaz five times daily in his cell at the agency headquarters. Besides the Quran, Rana asked for a pen and paper, which have been provided, though he remains under close observation to ensure he doesn’t use the pen to harm himself.
Interestingly, the sleuths are also trying to establish the reasons behind Rana’s radicalisation and intense hatred for India. After the Mumbai attacks, Rana had allegedly told his childhood friend and co-conspirator Headley that “Indians deserved it”.
Meanwhile, security remains heightened around the NIA headquarters, with restricted access and continuous monitoring. This extradition, the first of its kind in a terrorism case between the US and India, is being hailed as a diplomatic victory by Indian officials.
India