The National Investigation Agency (NIA) will investigate the Kerala connections of the global terrorist Tahawwur Rana. The NIA believes he received substantial support and assistance in Kochi. Rana stayed at the Taj Residency in Kochi and reportedly conducted interviews before ‘recruitment’. The agency is now gathering information about visitors to the hotel on November 16 and 17, 2008. The hotel employees from that period will also be investigated.
Meanwhile, reports indicate that an accomplice of Tahawwur Rana has been arrested in Kochi. It is unclear whether he is a Keralite. He is likely to be interrogated alongside Tahawwur Rana.
Eight NIA officers from Kochi have been included in the investigation team. They are expected to probe Rana’s Kochi links. More individuals are likely to be questioned to trace the global terrorist’s connections in Kochi. The Taj Hotel’s CCTV footage will be examined in this regard. Rana will be brought to Kochi to collect further evidence.
In the meantime, reports from Delhi suggest that Rana is not cooperating with the interrogation. He evades several important questions.
According to the NIA, it has been revealed that Tahawwur Rana had close ties with Dawood Ibrahim, who has been leading a terror campaign against Bharat for over three decades. Bharat has been attempting to extradite him since the infamous Mumbai blasts on 12 March 1993, which caused 257 deaths and injured 1,400 people. Dawood is reportedly living in Pakistan, having previously operated from Dubai. However, since Modi took office in 2014, Bharat-UAE relations have improved significantly, and an extradition treaty has been established between the two nations. Consequently, Dawood is believed to have relocated to Pakistan.
The NIA is now investigating whether Rana has any connections with Dawood Ibrahim’s D-Company, based in Dubai. There are reports that Rana has admitted the conspiracy was planned in Dubai and acknowledged his links with Sajid Mir, a notorious terrorist. Sajid Mir is a close associate of Lashkar-e-Taiba’s founder, Hafiz Saeed. Rana was in constant phone contact with him. The NIA believes Rana plotted Mumbai-style blasts in Kochi and Bengaluru. Rana had met ISIS agents in Dubai. The NIA is reviewing records of Rana’s phone conversations with David Coleman Headley, a notorious global terrorist and co-conspirator behind the Mumbai blasts.
The people of Bharat, and Keralites in particular, are anxiously awaiting news about Rana’s Kerala links. Nationalist groups believe this will unmask several individuals in Kerala.
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