Key accused Tahawwur Rana in the 26/11 wanted a ‘medal’ for ‘top class’ contribution

Tahawwur Rana, key accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, wanted it to be conveyed to one of the Pakistani co-conspirators a year after the 2008 attacks that he deserved a ‘medal’ for ‘top class’ contribution and that the “Indians deserved it,” papers filed by the U.S. government in a California court say.

Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana, a key accused in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks case, believed that he deserved a “medal” for his “top class” contribution, and also wanted the same to be conveyed to his Pakistani co-conspirator David Coleman Headley, according to reports. He had also said that the Indians “deserved it”. The U.S. authorities advised the courtroom that “the Secretary of State, and not the Court, decides whether the fugitive should be surrendered to the requesting country”. India has declared Rana a fugitive for his involvement in the 2008 terror attacks and he is presently lodged in a Los Angeles jail and awaits extradition to India. A US court has set February 12 as the date for hearing his extradition case.

Rana, 59, was re-arrested on June 10 in Los Angeles on the basis of the extradition request by India for his involvement in the 2008 attack in which 166 people, including six Americans, were killed. He was earlier arrested in October 2009 by the US police soon after Headley’s arrest at Chicago O’Hare airport. According to The Hindu, which claimed to have exclusive access to his extradition papers, FBI had intercepted a conversation between Rana and Headley in 2009, during which they demanded “Pakistan’s highest military honour” for the terrorists killed during the attacks. The report said the two were good friends and had attended military high school together.