Tahawwur Rana Denies Involvement in 26/11 Attacks During Police Interrogation

Tahawwur Rana, who is currently in the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Delhi, has asserted that he had no involvement in the planning or execution of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. This statement was made during an extensive interrogation conducted by a team from the Mumbai Crime Branch police.

Senior officials reported that during the questioning, which lasted nearly eight hours, Tahawwur Rana stated that he was not involved in either the conspiracy or the operational execution of the coordinated attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, which claimed more than 166 lives. He alleged that David Coleman Headley, his childhood friend and a co-accused in the case, was solely responsible for conducting reconnaissance and preparing the attack plans. It is already known that Headley previously admitted to conducting surveillance in Mumbai and other parts of India on behalf of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

During the interrogation, Tahawwur Rana disclosed that he had travelled not only to Mumbai and Delhi but also to Kerala. When asked about the purpose of his visit to Kerala, he reportedly stated that it was to meet a known acquaintance, whose name and address details he had provided to the investigating agency. Sources indicated that the Mumbai Crime Branch team may soon travel to Kerala to verify the information disclosed by Rana.

However, officials noted that Rana was not very cooperative during questioning and often provided inconsistent responses. He reportedly claimed memory loss as the reason for his inability to recall specific details related to the events, which occurred several years ago.

This interrogation is part of the broader investigation being conducted by the NIA into the pre-attack conspiracy orchestrated by Lashkar-e-Taiba and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) prior to the Mumbai attacks. Authorities are also investigating Tahawwur Rana's possible connections with several individuals believed to be central to the 26/11 plot, including Abdur Rehman Hashim Syed, Sajid Majid, Ilyas Kashmiri, and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi.

Tahawwur Rana, a former officer in the Pakistan Army Medical Corps, was recently extradited from the United States to India for questioning in connection with the Mumbai attacks case.