The United States last week extradited convicted terrorist Tahawwur Hussain Rana to India so that justice could be served for his alleged role in a series of devastating terror attacks in Mumbai in 2008 – attacks which saw 166 people murdered, including six Jews at a Chabad house.
The 64-year-old terrorist was charged in India with conspiracy, murder, commission of a terrorist act, and forgery, and for his alleged membership in the terror group Laskhar-e-Tayyiba (LeT). He has spent the past five years contesting US extradition attempts.
Rana, according to Indian authorities, created cover for LeT terrorists to freely roam the city to carry out surveillance in advance of the attacks. Rana was said to have agreed to open a Mumbai branch of his immigration business and appoint a childhood friend in LeT as a manager, despite having no previous experience in the role.
In November 2008, LeT carried out 12 bombing and shooting attacks across Mumbai after illegally entering the city by sea. Attackers fired guns and launched grenades at crowds in a train station, shot at restaurant patrons across two establishments, and detonated explosives at the Taj Mahal Palace, where they also gunned down visitors. Using his company as a cover, Indian authorities claimed that Rana knowingly submitted fraudulent information to aid in LeT’s entrance into the country.
Among the many locations targeted by LeT was a Chabad Jewish community center, where six people were killed by the terrorist’s gunfire. Brooklyn-born Rabbi Gavriel, his pregnant wife Rivka Holtzberg, New York Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, American-Israeli Rabbi Bentzion Kruman, Israeli grandmother Yocheved Orpaz, and Mexican citizen Norma Shvarzblat Rabinovich all perished in the attack. Many of the victims were buried in Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives.
Rabbi Gavriel and Holtzberg left behind two-year-old son Moshe Holtzberg, who was rescued from the scene by his nanny and relocated to Israel after being orphaned in the attack. Moshe’s brother, who was not in Mumbai at the time of the attack, later died of Tay-Sachs disease, CNN reported.
The terrorists behind the Mumbai attack
One of the terrorists convicted for the attack testified in court that the Chabad center had been targeted because he believed it was “used as a front for the Mossad,” NBC News reported. Attackers reportedly also discussed carrying out bombing attacks on three more Chabad houses across India – claiming their actions were revenge for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
India executed gunman Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab in 2012, according to the World Jewish Congress.
In total, the terrorists killed 166 people, wounded hundreds and caused $1.5 billion in property damage, according to the US Justice Department.
Rana allegedly told his professional associate that the Indians “deserved it,” following the attacks, the Department shared.
While the Mumbai attacks proved to be the most deadly, they were not the first time that Rana was charged by authorities for involvement in terrorism. In 2013, Rana was sentenced to 14 years in prison following his conviction in Illinois for conspiring to provide material support to LeT and to a foiled LeT-sponsored terrorist plot in Copenhagen, Denmark.
