Former Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
As Tahawwur Rana, one of the co-conspirators in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, is set to be extradited to India on Thursday, former Union Home Secretary G.K Pillai said on Wednesday that Rana had a “small role” to play in the carnage but the main conspirator was protected by the U.S.
In an interview with The Hindu, Mr. Pillai said that the U.S. acted in “bad faith” and despite knowing about the terror plan, they let Rana’s school friend and main conspirator, David Coleman Headley, to continue with his “anti-India activity.”
Editorial | Prosecuting David Headley
The official said that Headley acted as a double agent for the U.S. government and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). After Headley’s arrest in 2009, the Americans stalled his extradition to India by offering him plea-bargaining, he said.
“Even post the 26/11 attack, Headley came back to Mumbai. We could have arrested him in Mumbai if we had known that he is an accomplice in terms of logistics and support. It was definitely bad faith by the Americans. It really shows that as far as the Americans are concerned, they look after only their interests, and not concerned with anybody else’s,” Mr. Pillai said.
When asked about the significance of Rana’s extradition to India, Mr. Pillai said, “He had a small role to play, more of a passive role in providing the legal cover for Headley to be able to come to India. His role was setting up the immigration office in Mumbai and employing Headley and it was during these trips that the latter identified the place of landing of the boat carrying the terrorists. He had done physical reconnaissance of all these places and passed on the information to the ISI.”
It was during Mr. Pillai’s tenure in office that Headley and Rana were arrested by the U.S authorities in October 2009, almost a year after the attacks that left 166 people dead.
“Whether there had been significant evidence that had come to light later on will possibly be known once the National Investigation Agency (NIA) files its chargesheet. He was arrested when I was the Union Home Secretary but the legal process takes a long time, especially extradition. Finally it has happened,” he said, adding that Rana would be convicted based on the evidence gathered so far.
Mr. Pillai said Headley, despite having a Pakistani father, could pass off as a U.S citizen due to his appearance and the passport, which only had his mother’s name.
“Before 26/11 happened, he had made a number of trips to India… from India, he went to Pakistan on his U.S passport. Even our intelligence agencies did not suspect him to be a Pakistani agent primarily because he came on a U.S passport and could pass off as a white American. The Americans very cleverly concealed his Pakistani identity. Had we known he is of Pakistani origin, every time he came to India, he would have been under surveillance,” Mr. Pillai said.
He said after the incident, the software to track foreigners was changed to flag people frequently visiting India and Pakistan on foreign passports.
Rana, wanted by the NIA in the 2008 terror attack case, was lodged in a Los Angeles prison en route to India following the completion of extradition proceedings.
The Pakistani-Canadian citizen had challenged the extradition and the last attempt was rejected by the U.S Supreme Court earlier this week. On December 4, 2019, in accordance with the provisions of the Extradition Treaty between India and the U.S., the Embassy of India submitted a diplomatic note formally requesting Rana’s extradition.
Ten armed terrorists trained by Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and officials in the Pakistan security establishment launched coordinated terror attacks at 12 locations in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. One of the terrorists, Ajmal Kasab, was caught and later hanged to death at a Pune prison in 2012.
Published – April 09, 2025 10:29 pm IST