26/11 accused Tahawwur Rana under 'suicide watch' at NIA HQ after extradition

तहव्वुर राणा

New Delhi: Tahawwur Rana (64), a key conspirator in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, is currently under "suicide watch" inside a high-security cell at the National Investigation Agency (NIA) headquarters in Delhi. This follows a special court's order granting the NIA his custody for 18 days.

After being extradited from the United States, Rana was brought to India on Thursday evening. Since then, he has been kept under constant observation through both human monitoring and CCTV surveillance. The NIA office on Lodhi Road has been placed under tight, multi-layered security arrangements.

 "Rana has been kept in a 14x14 cell on the ground floor. He will be allowed only a soft-tip pen to write so that he can't harm himself," a source said.

Access to Tahawwur Rana’s cell has been strictly restricted, with only a select group of officers authorized by NIA chief Sadanand Date allowed entry. Date, an IPS officer from the Maharashtra cadre, was the additional commissioner of police in Mumbai during the 2008 attacks and sustained serious injuries while confronting the terrorists.

According to sources, specially assigned guards monitor Rana around the clock in rotating shifts, with no communication permitted between them and the accused. Authorities are taking heightened precautions, especially when moving him between locations, amid concerns that there could be attempts to silence him to stop him from revealing key information about his links to ISI operatives and Lashkar sleeper cells active in India.

NIA interrogates Tahawwur Rana

On Friday, the NIA began interrogating Tahawwur Rana to uncover the broader conspiracy behind the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. The probe is expected to delve into his alleged ties with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and his role in activating sleeper cells across India.

Officials say the questioning will also examine Rana’s connection with his close associate, David Coleman Headley, also known as Daood Gilani. Headley is believed to have set up sleeper cells in locations such as Pushkar, Goa, Delhi, and other areas, which are now under the agency’s scrutiny.

On the day Tahawwur Hussain Rana, accused in the Mumbai terror attacks, was extradited from the United States to India, the Congress party claimed that the Modi government did not initiate the extradition process. Instead, it asserted that the current administration is reaping the benefits of the "mature, consistent, and strategic diplomacy" that was set in motion during the UPA era.