With the recent extradition of Tahawwur Hussain Rana to India, the murky layers of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks are unraveling once again — this time, with even sharper focus on Pakistan’s notorious spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and two enigmatic figures long believed to be central to the deadly conspiracy: Major Iqbal and Major Sameer Ali.
Rana, a Canadian citizen with Pakistani origin and one of the key accused in the 26/11 plot, was extradited from the United States on April 10 after 17 years of legal wrangling. Now in the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Rana is undergoing intensive interrogation that is revealing long-suppressed links and forgotten details from one of the darkest chapters of terrorism in India’s recent history.
According to sources in the NIA, the focus of questioning has narrowed down to Rana's communication with ISI operative Major Iqbal — believed to be the main handler of US citizen David Coleman Headley, Rana’s childhood friend and Lashkar-e-Taiba scout who conducted detailed reconnaissance ahead of the Mumbai attacks.
“Iqbal was an active ISI officer who not only instructed Headley but also funded his missions and assigned him strategic targets. Headley, in his explosive testimony in 2011, admitted to receiving instructions and funds via emails exchanged with a man using the alias "Chaudhary Khan"—now confirmed to be Iqbal’s pseudonym,” said an NIA officer.
Among these emails, there was a reference to engaging Rajaram Rege, then affiliated with the Shiv Sena. Rege later clarified that he met Headley only briefly and refused his request to enter the Army building. “Another message urged Headley to send operational updates and technical surveillance data to Iqbal, further confirming the depth of ISI’s involvement,” said the officer of the federal agency.
Though the US chargesheet stopped short of explicitly naming the ISI, it made it clear that Iqbal was deeply entrenched in both the planning and financing of the 26/11 attacks, under the Lashkar-e-Taiba umbrella.
While Iqbal laid the foundation, it was Major Sameer Ali — he is also in the control room — who allegedly directed the execution. “According to Abu Jundal (Zabiuddin Ansari), the 26/11 handler arrested in 2012, Major Sameer Ali operated from a Lashkar control room inside Malir Cantonment, a high-security military base in Karachi. He was the one issuing real-time orders to Lashkar commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi as the carnage unfolded across Mumbai, said an NIA source.
Interpol’s Red Corner notice lists Ali as a 1966-born resident of Lahore, fluent in Urdu, Hindi, and English. Despite multiple pieces of corroborative evidence and testimonies, Pakistan has consistently denied his existence, calling him a "fictitious character."
Adding to the suspicion, just weeks after the attack, Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) reportedly raided the same control room and systematically destroyed all evidence. Although Lakhvi was later arrested from the Baitul Mujahideen camp in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir but other key operatives, including Abu Jundal’s combat trainer Abu Kahfa, vanished through the back door.
Rana’s return to Indian soil is not just about seeking justice against one individual. It is the key to unlocking an extensive and insidious terror infrastructure—one that transcends borders, operates under diplomatic shadows and is allegedly backed by state institutions.
NIA officials now hope Rana’s interrogation will yield long buried evidence to establish that the 26/11 Mumbai attacks were not merely the work of a radical outfit but a chilling demonstration of a state-sponsored proxy war.
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