M A I N   N E W S

Rana was fixer, planner, financier
From channelising funds, facilitating Headley’s visits to getting him a Pak visa, Rana did it all, say investigators
Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service

NIA forms teams to trace Headley visits Mumbai: The National Investigation Agency has formed several teams here as well as in other states and started questioning several people to trace the footsteps of David Headley and his accomplice Tahawwar Hussain Rana, in India as new leads suggested that they had visited Kerala. NIA officials were looking for an estate agent in Khar, a western suburb of the city, and Tardeo of Central Mumbai, who could have helped Headley in finding a house in Breach Candy in South Mumbai, official sources said. — PTI

New Delhi, November 15
Even as the investigators are probing David Headley’s role in various terror plots, including the deadly 26/11 Mumbai attacks, the handiwork of his accomplice, Tahhawur Hussian Rana, a Pakistan-born Canadian national, has started to unravel and appears to be equally dangerous.

Rana, the 48-year-old business man, whose bearded, bespectacled face is being splashed on television news bulletins these days, say sources, was in know of everything. He was a key player, the planner and the man through whom funds were channelised to Headley and it was Rana who acted as the “fixer” for Headley.

Investigators now know that Rana was the one who owned the immigration/visa consultancy firm, whose branch Headley opened in Tardeo, Mumbai. The firm functioned in Mumbai till July 2008 without any suspicion and was possibly used to facilitate the escape of militants of the Indian Mujahideen after blasts in Jaipur and Delhi. Rana’s firm had enabled Headley to travel twice to Denmark as a representative of his immigration company.

It was Rana who arranged air tickets for Headley's overseas travels, including the nine visits to India between 2006 and 2009 and also to Europe. Again it was Rana, who used his contacts with the Pakistan Consul General in Chicago, Aman Rashid, when he attempted to get a five-year visa for Headley. Rana falsely described Headley as a ‘white-coloured American’ and not as someone who hailed from Pakistan.

Notably, the Consul General, Rana and Headley had attended the same school - the Punjab Government’s Army Cadet School at Hasan Abdal in Pakistan. The Pakistani diplomat knew Headley by his original name Daood Gilani and it was Rana who tried to hoodwink the diplomat with the “white American” theory.

The link of Headley and Rana to the Pakistan-based Laskhar-e-Toiba has already been established from frequent calls to suspicious numbers in Pakistan and also their visits. The FBI lists two unmanned persons in Pakistan who have so far been identified as “contact-A” and “Laskhar contact-A”. Rana knew both of them.

Even the FBI knows the importance of Rana and has sought a nearly 60-day extension till January 14, 2010, to file an indictment against him. Originally the chargesheet was to be filed on November 19. The FBI was granted such an extension in time against Headley and now has time till January 1, 2010. Investigators, who are in the know of matters, say Indian officials need time to examine the evidence.

Meanwhile, Home Secretary GK Pillai told reporters on the sidelines of a function that the probe in India will take four to six weeks. “Investigations are on, it will take us at least, I will put it as something between four to six weeks, to complete the probe. Once that investigation is completed, we will know the links,” he said. In reply to a specific question on Rana’s movements, Pillai said he had visited Kochi in Kerala and the probe to find out what he did while in the city is on.

Rahul’s role still under lens, says Home Secy

New Delhi: Union Home Secretary GK Pillai said on Sunday that no clean chit has been given to anyone, including Rahul Bhatt in David Headley terror plot probe. Rahul, son of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, is under scanner and is heading for intense interrogation by the NIA due to his alleged links with Headley. According to the investigating agencies, Headley had met Rahul during his visit to Mumbai. His name also cropped up in several email conversations with co-accused Tahawwur Rana. — ANI