26/11: Evasive Tahawwur Rana Ducking NIA Questions on Finances, ISI

NEW DELHI:
Mumbai attack plotter Tahawwur Rana has not been forthcoming on details on the financial aspect of his operations and his relations with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), investigators said on Monday.

During his over 10-hour grilling, punctuated by meals and medical checkup, NIA investigators questioned Rana, 64, about his Chicago-based immigration and travel agency.

He was also asked about the spurt in his phone conversations with his co-conspirator David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani, a US citizen who is housed in a prison in that country, around the November 26, 2008, attack.

Sources said Rana is probably noting down in a personal diary, which he requisitioned through a plea in the Special NIA court, to note key questions being asked and the answers he is giving.

This appears to be his attempt to remain consistent with his stand on key issues throughout his 18-day questioning.

On some issues, Rana, a former Pakistan Army Medical Corps officer, has expressed his inability to recall issues related to the 17-year-old attack.

Just months before 26/11, Headley had opened an office in Mumbai, which was used as a cover to scout targets for 26/11. He allegedly used Satellite geotagging to identify targets and passed on the information to the 10 LeT militants’ handlers.

NIA investigators are trying to extract from Rana information about the over three-year groundwork and planning undertaken by LeT and ISI to execute the Mumbai attack that started on November 26, 2008 and lasted till November 29, leaving 166, including six US nationals, dead.

He is being questioned about people whose names cropped up in intercepted conversations between the terrorists, their handlers and some ISI functionaries. This list includes ISI’s Major Iqbal alias Major Samir Ali.

Other persons mentioned in recorded intercepts include those addressed as Pasha, Nana, Wasi and Tayya.

Investigators also want Rana to shed light on roles played by LeT and Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HuJI) operatives including Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, Sajjid Majid, Illyas Kashmiri and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.