Tahawwur Rana and his links to 2 terror cases in South India | Bangalore News

Whereas the 64-year-old will not be straight linked to terrorism incidents in South India, he’s recognized to have been related to a key LeT commander who dealt with operations within the area across the time of the 26/11 Mumbai assaults, together with the July 25, 2008, Bengaluru serial blasts and a Kerala terror recruitment plot revealed after 4 youths died in Kashmir in September 2008.

There may be documentary proof from courtroom filings within the US and India over the past 17 years to counsel that Rana was linked to a Gulf-based LeT module headed by a Pakistani nationwide recognized as Wali alias Rehan alias Abdul Aziz alias Rashid Abdullah, who is needed within the Bengaluru blasts case, the place one individual was killed, and the Kerala recruitment plot. Abdullah, who’s on the Nationwide Investigation Company’s (NIA’s) most wished record, was additionally named in a file on the 26/11 Mumbai terror assault that India gave Pakistan in 2010.

Most wished by the Nationwide Investigation Company. (Specific)

On the eve of the 26/11 assaults – between November 14 and November 21, 2008 – Rana undertook a four-city tour of India, travelling to New Delhi, Kochi, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai, the place he marketed his providers as an immigration marketing consultant in newspapers. This tour is suspected to have been a part of actions linked to the LeT community in India.

Sources in safety companies in South India stated that the NIA and state companies would quiz Rana on his alleged affiliation with the LeT accused within the Karnataka and Kerala instances if the protocol concerned within the 26/11 Mumbai assault trial permitted a multi-agency interrogation.

How Rana is linked to LeT actions in South India

The first route via which Rana is linked to LeT actions in South India is thru his alleged affiliation with a former Pakistan navy operative, Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed alias Pasha, who’s linked to LeT commander Abdullah.

Based on courtroom filings by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) following Rana’s arrest within the US in October 2009, he stayed with Pasha in Dubai in November 2008. He allegedly realized in regards to the impending LeT assault on Mumbai on November 26, 2008, from Pasha.

“Rana acknowledged that he had met with ‘Pasha’ in Dubai and that ‘Pasha’ even stayed with Rana. Rana, nonetheless, falsely denied being advised by ‘Pasha’ particularly that the Mumbai assaults had been about to occur,” a US legal professional advised a federal courtroom after Rana’s arrest.

Based on statements given to the NIA and the FBI by David Headley, who was allegedly Rana’s overseas affiliate in furthering LeT’s world actions, Pasha was operating terror operations in India with Indian recruits together with different LeT operations (presumably actions of the ISI-linked Indian Mujahideen group).

Pasha, who figures in India’s record of most wished individuals, has additionally been accused of taking part in a task within the 26/11 Mumbai assault conspiracy. An Interpol lookout discover hyperlinks him to terrorist acts in India.

Indian companies have discovered that the Gulf-based LeT module linked to Pasha and Wali performed a central function in sheltering two key accused within the 2008 Bengaluru blasts in Bangladesh in October 2008, and the escape of a key accused within the Kerala terror recruitment plot to the Gulf in November 2008.

Based on accounts supplied to the Karnataka and Kerala Police by a former Gulf-based LeT middleman, Sarfaraz Nawaz, who was deported from Oman in February 2009 and accused by the Bengaluru police within the July 25, 2008, serial blasts case, a key assembly of LeT leaders was held within the first week of November 2008 in Dubai to plan the escape of terror suspects wished by the police in South India.

The Dubai assembly was held following the killing of 4 Kerala youths in Kashmir in September 2008 by Indian safety forces. Abdul Raheem, Mohammad Fayas, Md Fayis and Md Yasin had been allegedly on their approach to a LeT camp for terror coaching. They had been allegedly taken to Kashmir by a still-wanted LeT Kerala operative Okay P Sabir alias Ayub after they participated within the 2008 Bengaluru serial blasts reportedly executed by Nawaz and one other LeT Kerala recruit, Tadiyandavede Nasir.

Based on Nawaz, the Dubai assembly was held on Abdullah’s directions “to shift Nasir and his associates to Bangladesh”. Nasir and his brother-in-law Mohammed Shafas, a co-accused within the Bengaluru serial blasts case, managed to achieve Bangladesh through West Bengal and had been allegedly sheltered by LeT operative Mubashir Syed, who was a part of Abdullah’s Bangladesh LeT community in October 2008. Syed can also be named as an accused within the 2008 Bengaluru serial blasts case.

Nasir and Shafas had been finally picked up by Bangladesh authorities in November 2009 – shortly after Headley’s and Rana’s arrests in October 2009 – and handed over to Indian authorities.

Rana’s mysterious Kochi tour forward of 26/11 assault

Whereas Rana is remotely linked to the LeT module concerned with the Bengaluru serial blasts of July 25, 2008, via affiliation with Gulf-based LeT leaders like Abdullah, there’s a seemingly extra direct hyperlink between Rana and the escape of Okay P Sabir, the LeT operative from Kerala who’s accused within the 2008 terror recruitment plot.

Rana’s go to to 4 Indian cities in November 2008, together with Kochi, overlaps with Sabir’s escape from India to the Gulf.

The proof of Rana’s go to to India in November 2008 exists in newspaper commercials issued for his immigration consultancy agency First World Immigration – allegedly used as a entrance by Headley for reconnaissance for the 26/11 Mumbai assaults.

Earlier investigations in Kochi on Rana’s go to to town on November 16, 2008, haven’t thrown up any main findings. It exhibits he stayed together with his spouse, Samraz Rana Akhtar, at a five-star lodge and spoke to 13 totally different cellphone numbers from his native quantity.

The NIA’s investigation of the plot behind the 2008 LeT recruitment of Kerala youths for terrorism has, nonetheless, revealed that Sabir, the important thing accused, fled India through Mumbai on a solid passport on November 21, 2008.

Based on the NIA, Sabir fled India utilizing the solid passport of a Kerala man recognized as Shameer Ali Kutty, who labored as a every day wager. By the way, Ali Kutty’s credentials had been additionally reportedly utilized by Nasir to acquire a SIM card.

The every day wage earner advised the police in 2008 that he misplaced a passport he owned round 2003. Police suspect the misplaced passport was utilized by LeT operatives in Kerala – by Nasir to acquire a SIM card and Sabeer to flee to the Gulf.

It’s suspected that Sabir’s escape from India was facilitated by Abdullah. He has been named alongside Sabir and others by the NIA as an accused within the 2008 plot to recruit Kerala youths for terrorism.

Sabir is reportedly residing in Pakistan, in accordance with info obtained by safety companies from his affiliate Okay A Anoop, who was deported from the UAE in 2016.

The NIA’s investigation within the case associated to the 2008 recruitment of Kerala youths for terrorism has discovered that Sabir took Fayas, Fayis, Rahim, Yasin and Abdul Jabbar to Kashmir in September 2008 and handed them over to an LeT operative.

The youths had been reportedly taken to an LeT camp for coaching, however 4 had been killed quickly after in an encounter with Indian safety forces. Jabbar, who escaped, was later arrested by the Kerala Police, which led to the unravelling of LeT actions in South India.

Based on the file supplied by India to Pakistan on Abdullah within the aftermath of the 26/11 assaults of 2008, he funded the 2008 Bengaluru blasts, organized logistics in Bangladesh for the accused within the case, and was current at a coaching camp for 26/11 attackers.