26/11 mastermind Tahawwur Rana being flown to India today; Security beefed up at Hindon airbase

New Delhi: Security has been beefed up at the Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad with 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind Tahawwur Rana set to be brought to India today onboard a special flight from the US.

Rana is being extradited to India after his last-ditch attempt to evade extradition was rejected by the US Supreme Court.

Rana, a Pakistan-born Canadian and a close associate of Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, is one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

A multi-agency team from India had gone to the US to bring him back to India. They completed all paperwork and legalities required to facilitate the extradition process.

Security has been beefed up around Hindon Airbase where the plane bringing back Rana is likely to land.

He will be presented before the court today.

The extradition of Rana had been announced by President Donald Trump who had dubbed him “a very evil man”, in a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington, in February this year.

Rana had personally conducted reconnaissance and scouted Mumbai for picking the locations of the terror strikes ahead of the terror attacks. He had also directly facilitated fellow jihadi David Coleman Headley—also known as Dawood Gilani—to travel to India using a Pakistani-American passport.

The purpose was to identify potential targets for the Mumbai terror attacks being plotted by LeT in coordination with several officers of the Pakistan Army and Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).