WHY RANA ISA REALLY BIG CATCH

EXTRADITED terrorist of Pakistani origin Tahawwur Hussian Rana's antecedents were revealed in copious detail in a US court when he was tried by a federal jury in 2011.

- MUKESH RANJAN

While the jury convicted him for his role in a plot against a Danish newspaper and supporting Pakistan based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba's (LeT) designs, it inexplicably acquitted Rana of conspiracy to provide material support to the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai that killed more than 160 people, including six Americans, and left over 238 others injured.

Federal prosecutors had produced loads of evidence, including emails and wiretaps, to establish how he and his childhood friend David Coleman Headley were part of the plot; that Headley had advised Rana of his assignment from the LeT to scout potential targets in India; that Headley obtained Rana's consent to open an office of the latter's First World Immigration Services as a cover for his activities; that Rana advised Headley on how to obtain a visa for travel to India; and that Headley and Rana had reviewed how Headley had done surveillance of the targets that were attacked in Mumbai.

In a post-arrest statement in October 2009, Rana admitted knowing that LeT was a terror outfit and that Headley had attended its training camps in Pakistan, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said. Headley testified that he attended LeT training camps on five separate occasions between 2002 and 2005. In late 2005, Headley received instructions from LeT to travel to India for surveillance, which he did five times leading up to the Mumbai attacks three years later, the FBI revealed.

In an intercepted conversation with Headley, Rana allegedly commended the nine LeT terrorists who had been killed during the November 26-28 Mumbai attacks, saying "[t]hey should be given Nishan-e-Haider"-Pakistan's "highest award for gallantry in battle," which is reserved for fallen soldiers. That evidence was also produced before the court, yet the jury strangely didn't find merit in the charges.