Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Thursday, January 14, 2010
TORONTO — A Pakistani-Canadian businessman was indicted by a U.S. grand jury on Thursday for his alleged role in the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India that killed more than 160 people.
Tahawwur Hussain Rana was charged with providing material support to both the Mumbai attacks and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, the Pakistani terrorist group that was responsible.
Mr. Rana, 49, was already facing charges alleging he had participated in a plot to attack a Danish newspaper that published a cartoon of the Muslim prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban.
But on Thursday a grand jury returned a new indictment that, for the first time, also implicated him in the Mumbai massacre, a three-day terror rampage in India’s largest city. Two Canadians were among the dead.
The owner of First World Immigration, which has offices in Toronto, Chicago and New York, Mr. Rana was arrested last October in Illinois, where he had been working, although he owns a home in Ottawa.
The grand jury also indicted Ilyas Kashmiri, a Pakistani terrorist who was allegedly in regular contact with al-Qaeda, and Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, a retired major in the Pakistani military.
A fourth defendant, David Coleman Headley, a Pakistani-born American who had trained at Lashkar camps in Pakistan, was indicted last month for his alleged roles in the Danish and Indian plots.
The indictment alleges that in 2006, after changing his name from Daood Gilani so he would appear more American, Mr. Headley began studying targets in Mumbai. Mr. Rana allegedly helped by giving him a cover story.
“In approximately June 2006, Headley allegedly traveled to Chicago, advised Rana of his assignment to scout potential targets in India, and obtained approval from Rana, who owned First World Immigration Services in Chicago and elsewhere, to open a First World office in Mumbai as cover for his activities,” the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
“Rana allegedly directed an individual associated with First World to prepare documents supporting Headley’s cover story of opening a First World office in Mumbai, and advised Headley how to obtain a visa for travel to India.”
During the planning stages of the Mumbai attacks, Mr. Headley made five trips to the Indian city to take photographs and record videotapes of potential targets.
“Before each trip, Lashkar members and associates allegedly instructed Headley regarding specific locations where he was to conduct surveillance, and Headley traveled to Pakistan after each trip to meet with Lashkar members and associates, report on the results of his surveillance, and provide the surveillance photos and videos,” the statement says.
The indictment suggests that Lashkar conducted careful planning which included constructing a Styrofoam model of the Taj Mahal hotel. Lashkar also gave Mr. Headley a GPS device so he could record the locations of targets and sites where the terrorists could land the boat in which they were to travel from Pakistan.
During Headley’s July 2008 surveillance mission to Mumbai, one of the Pakistani terrorist planners allegedly communicated with him “by passing messages to him through Rana,” the indictment alleges.
The Mumbai attacks began on Nov. 26, 2008 and continuing until Nov. 28. Ten gunmen trained by Lashkar used rifles, grenades and explosives to attack the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, the Leopold Café, Chabad House and the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus train station – all of which Headley allegedly had scouted in advance.
The indictment similarly accuses Mr. Rana of helping Mr. Headley scout targets in Denmark, where Pakistani terrorists were planning a second attack, this time against the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, its cartoonist and his editor.
“In late December 2008 and early January 2009, after reviewing with Rana how he had performed surveillance of the targets attacked in Mumbai, Headley advised Rana of the planned attack on the Danish newspaper and his intended travel to Denmark to conduct surveillance of its facilities,” the statement says.
It says Mr. Rana again helped Mr. Headley travel as a representative of First World, so he could gain access to the newspaper office by claiming he wanted to buy advertising.
Mr. Rana has pleaded not guilty to the charges related to the Danish plot. No date has been set for his arraignment on the new charges related to the Mumbai attacks.
National Post
sbell@nationalpost.com