Abstract
Written in the recent context of Tahawwur Hussain Rana’s long-awaited extradition to India—completed on 10 April 2025—this investigative paper examines the complex architecture behind the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, while also interrogating the legal manoeuvres Rana employed in the United States to delay justice, ultimately to no avail. His return marks a significant development in India’s protracted pursuit of accountability for one of the most devastating terror sieges in its history. Drawing on court records, intelligence briefings and verified open sources, the paper analyses data and reconstructs the chronological timeline of events that preceded years before the 26/11 attacks. It reveals the roles played by Rana and his childhood friend and associate David Coleman Headley, who conducted multiple surveillance missions in Mumbai under the guise of business and cultural exchange, as well as the plotted attacks on the Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper offices. The paper also details Headley’s complex profile—including his prior role as a DEA informant and the training he underwent after joining Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan—which further complicates the web of state and non-state entanglements. Beyond tracing the transnational network of complicity, the study critically engages with the legal, diplomatic, and security dimensions of Rana’s extradition now that he faces the Indian justice system. It raises urgent questions about India’s preparedness to try a case so deeply entangled in geopolitics, memory, and unresolved failures in intelligence cooperation.
Keywords: 26/11 Mumbai attacks, Tahawwur Rana, David Headley, extradition, legal delay, Lashkar-e-Taiba, intelligence cooperation
