A 14-year-old social media post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gone viral after Tahawwur Rana, accused of helping plan the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, was extradited to India from the United States. He landed in Delhi on Thursday evening and has been sent to the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for 18 days.

What PM Modi said in 2011

In 2011, Prime Minister Modi had strongly criticised the Congress-led government's foreign policy. His post on X (formerly Twitter) from that year read:
"US declaring Tahawwur Rana innocent in Mumbai attack has disgraced the sovereignty of India & it is a 'major foreign policy setback'."

That year, a US court had cleared Rana of direct involvement in plotting the 2008 attacks, which killed 166 people. However, the court had still convicted him for supporting the terrorist group blamed for the attacks.

Now that Rana has finally been brought back to India, many social media users are praising PM Modi for fulfilling what he had spoken about in 2011.
One user wrote, "A leader who walks the talk. Captain, my captain."
Another user commented, "You did it, sir!! Kudos and thank you!"
Many people also repeated the popular phrase "Modi hai toh mumkin hai" (If there's PM Modi, everything is possible).

How Rana was linked to the 26/11 attacks

Tahawwur Rana is a Canadian national of Pakistani origin. He was once a doctor in the Pakistan Army. He was also the childhood friend of David Coleman Headley, one of the key people involved in the 26/11 attacks.

During his interrogation, Headley told officials that Rana knew about the planned attack and even helped him set up a business office in Mumbai as a front for planning the terror activities. Headley used a five-year visa, which Rana helped him get, to visit India five times between 2007 and 2008 to carry out surveillance.

Rana and his wife had also stayed at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, which was one of the main targets during the attacks.

He was sentenced to 14 years in jail in the US in 2013 but was released in 2020 due to health issues. After that, he was re-arrested based on India’s request for his extradition.

During PM Modi's visit to the US in February this year, President Donald Trump confirmed that Rana would be extradited to India.

 

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