The United States Supreme Court has denied an "emergency application" filed by Tahawwur Rana, an accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, challenging his extradition to India. Rana, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin, argued that he faced the risk of torture in India due to his background.
He had submitted an "Emergency Application for Stay" to the Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and the Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit.
In that petition, Rana argued that his extradition to India violates United States law and the United Nations Convention Against Torture "because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture."
"The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher, as the petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks," the application said.
The application also argued that Rana's "severe medical conditions" would make his extradition to Indian detention facilities equivalent to a "de facto" death sentence. Citing medical records from July 2024, it stated that he suffers from multiple "acute and life-threatening diagnoses," including documented heart attacks, Parkinson’s disease with cognitive decline, a mass suspected to be bladder cancer, stage 3 chronic kidney disease, chronic asthma, and a history of multiple COVID-19 infections.
Rana, through an appeal, stated that "if a stay is not entered, there will be no review at all, and the US courts will lose jurisdiction, and the petitioner will soon be dead."
The move comes just weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met former U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, where Trump announced the extradition of the "very evil" Rana to "face justice in India" for his alleged role in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks that claimed 166 lives.
On November 26, 2008, terrorists targeted eight locations across south Mumbai, with rescue operations concluding on November 29. Rana, 64, is known to have ties with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, a key conspirator behind the attacks.
