Rana Sentenced to 14 years by US Court

A U.S District court in Chicago has delivered a sentence of 14 years to Tahawwur Rana, the Pakistani Businessman and longtime resident of the city convicted of,
providing material support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba military group and to a foiled plot in Denmark in 2009.

Rana is relatively minor figure in the Mumbai case. He is important cheifly because of his long friendship with David Coleman Headly, a former US drug enforcement administration informant who has pleaded guilty to serving as an operative to Lashkar, the ISI and al Qaeda and who helped plan the Mumbai attack.

Rana helped Headly conduct reconnaissance in India and Denmark by allowing him to work as an overseas representative of his immigration consulting firm. That enabled Headly to open an office in Mumbai and to obtain visas.

Headly described how he was recruited, trained funded and directed by Lashkar and the ISI to do two years of surveillance on luxury hotels, a Jewish center and other targets in Mumbai.

Federal Prosecutors used Headly's accounts and corroborating evidence to file charges against a suspected mastermind of Mumbai attacks known only as Major Iqbal, Headly's alleged ISI handler- the first time the US government has charged a serving Pakistani intelligence officer with terrorism.


Courtesy: THE HINDU