Mumbai attack: Tahawwur Rana faces justice but where is David Headley

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday evening formally arrested Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who was brought to India after being “successfully extradited” from the US. A special court in Delhi subsequently remanded him in the custody of the agency for 18 days.

Rana, a key accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack case, had helped co-conspirator David Coleman Headley to obtain an Indian visa.

Headley, born Daood Sayed Gilani, is a Pakistani-American who became a key figure in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. 

He assisted the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in planning the attacks, which killed 166 people, by conducting extensive surveillance in Mumbai.

Born in 1960 in Washington, D.C., to a Pakistani father and American mother, Headley grew up in Pakistan but moved to the US as a teenager. His early years were marked by instability—he dropped out of schools, struggled with drug addiction, and got involved in drug trafficking. 

In the 1980s and 1990s, he was arrested multiple times for heroin-related offenses and became a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant to reduce his sentences. This role allowed him to travel to Pakistan, where he was gradually drawn into extremist circles.

By 2002, Headley began training with LeT, attending camps in Pakistan and deepening his involvement in their operations. Between 2006 and 2008, he made multiple trips to Mumbai, posing as an American businessman, to scout targets like the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. 

He provided LeT with detailed intelligence—maps, videos, and schedules—that enabled the coordinated attacks from November 26–28, 2008. 

He was also involved in a separate plot to attack a Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, over its publication of Prophet Mohammed cartoons.

Headley’s double life unraveled in 2009. 

His suspicious activities, including frequent trips to Pakistan and India, had raised red flags. After his ex-wife tipped off authorities about his terrorist ties as early as 2005, the FBI began surveilling him. 

In October 2009, he was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport while attempting to travel to Pakistan. Under interrogation, he confessed to his role in the Mumbai attacks and provided extensive details about LeT, Al-Qaeda, and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) involvement.

In 2010, Headley struck a plea deal with US prosecutors. He pleaded guilty to 12 terrorism-related charges, including conspiracy in the Mumbai attacks and the Danish plot. In exchange for cooperating, testifying against co-conspirators like Rana, a childhood friend who provided logistical support, and giving evidence via video link to Indian courts, he avoided the death penalty and extradition to India, Pakistan, or Denmark. In 2013, a US court sentenced him to 35 years in prison.

Since then, Headley has been serving his sentence in a US federal prison, though his exact location is undisclosed for security reasons. There were unconfirmed reports in 2018 of him being attacked in prison and hospitalised, but his lawyer denied these claims, stating he was neither in Chicago nor critically injured. 

Some, like former Indian Home Secretary GK Pillai, argue he was a double agent, working for both US agencies and LeT/ISI, with the US shielding him due to his informant past. 

Others see him as a manipulative figure who exploited his charm and dual identity to evade scrutiny for years.