The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that a man accused of being involved in the Mumbai attacks who is being extradited from the United States to India has no link to Pakistan.
However, MoFA Spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan said on Thursday that Rana has no link to Pakistan. At the time of his remarks, Rana was on his way to India.
“On Tahawwur Rana, we have conveyed our position regarding his Canadian nationality. As far as our record indicates, he did not even apply for renewal of his Pakistani origin documents,” Khan said.
“I reiterate our position, we will give further updates in due course,”
Rana, 64, is a doctor born in Pakistan who emigrated to Canada in 1997. He then moved to the US to start a business.
However, he was arrested by US authorities in 2009 in connection with terrorist plots made by the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has been designated by the US as a terrorist organisation.
A US court cleared him of being involved in the Mumbai attacks in 2013. However, he was convicted of providing support to LeT for a plan to attack the office of Jyllands-Posten newspaper in Denmark. The newspaper had published blasphemous caricatures of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). India considers Rana to be a key accused in the Mumbai attacks along with David Headley, a US citizen. Although India has tried to get both extradited, the US has only agreed to send Rana to India.
