NEW DELHI: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday dubbed Tahawwur Rana‘s extradition to India as a diplomatic win for the PM Modi-led NDA government, calling it a “moment of satisfaction for every Indian”.
US Supreme Court has cleared the way for Indian investigators to bring the Mumbai attacks accused Tahawwur Rana to India.
Calling Rana‘s extradition to India a “tight slap to the terrorists”, Union minister Piyush Goyal thanked PM Modi’s diplomacy and highlighted India’s improving ties with the world.
“The main demand of everyone in the country was to punish the perpetrators of the 26/11 terror attack. Even the Army had sought permission to take revenge, but unfortunately, the then government did not take strict action… All thanks to PM Narendra Modi’s diplomacy and India’s improving ties with the world, USA has helped India… Tahawwur Rana will soon be brought to India and tried… This is a tight slap to the terrorists and all those who tried to save them… This is India’s victory,” Goyal told news agency ANI.
On the same lines, BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said Rana’s extradition was the outcome of “strong willpower of the Modi government in fighting against terrorism“.
“In 2008, the horrific Mumbai terror attack took place, and now, the US Supreme Court has decided to extradite its accused, Tahawwur Rana, to India. This is undoubtedly a moment of satisfaction for every Indian. This was made possible due to the strong willpower of the Modi government in fighting against terrorism,” Trivedi told news agency PTI.
Rana’s review petition was turned down on January 21, removing the last hurdle in the extradition of Pakistani native and Canadian national Rana, an aide of Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks.
The writ was filed in November last year against an earlier order of a lower court that had ruled in favour of his extradition to India. “Petition DENIED,” the Supreme Court said, according to reports from the US.
Rana had been sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2011 for conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist plot to behead a Danish newspaper’s employees and providing material support to LeT, the UN proscribed terror group responsible for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks in which 166 people were killed. Headley, who had pleaded guilty in the Mumbai case, had testified as a government witness in Rana’s trial.