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Pakistan born Tahawwur Rana is successfully extradited to India to face trial for masterminding killing 166 people in 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

Curtains were finally brought down on Rana’s repeated attempts to escape extradition to India.

A specially hired plane by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) brought the terrorist to New Delhi on the evening on Thursday the 10th of April 2025.

Rana was being held in judicial custody in the US pursuant to proceedings initiated under the India-US Extradition Treaty for his extradition.

The extradition finally came through after Rana exhausted all legal avenues to stay the move, the NIA said.

The District Court for the Central District of California had ordered his extradition on May 16, 2023.

Rana then filed multiple litigations in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, all of which were rejected.

He subsequently filed a petition for a writ of certiorari, two habeas petitions, and an emergency application before the US Supreme Court, which were also denied.

The extradition proceedings were initiated between the two countries after India eventually secured a surrender warrant for the wanted terrorist from the US government, it added.

With the active assistance of US Department of Justice, the US Sky Marshal, NIA worked closely with other Indian intelligence agencies, NSG through the entire extradition process, which also saw India’s Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs coordinating with the other relevant authorities in the United States to take the matter to its successful conclusion.

Rana is accused of conspiring with David Coleman Headley aka Daood Gilani, and operatives of designated terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HUJI) along with other Pakistan-based co-conspirators, to carry out the devastating terror attacks in Mumbai in 2008.

A total of 166 persons were killed and over 238 injured in the deadly attacks. Both LeT and HUJI have been declared as terrorist organisations by the Government of India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, the NIA said.