Ahead of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s India visit between February 26 and March 7, Ottawa has sought to revoke the Canadian citizenship of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack.
Prime Minister Carney, who will be meeting his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, is visiting India over a trade agreement and to restore bilateral as well as diplomatic relations, which had soured under Justin Trudeau’s regime.
According to a report published by Global News, the Canadian government has moved to revoke the citizenship of Tahawwur Rana, who was extradited to India from the United States last year. A businessman accused of plotting the 2008 terror attack, his documents – obtained by investigators – show that Ottawa is actively seeking to strip him of the status he acquired in 2001.
The report said this move is based on findings that Rana used fraudulent residency claims to obtain his Canadian nationality. When applying for citizenship in 2000, he claimed to have resided in Ottawa and Toronto for the preceding four years, yet a subsequent RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) investigation determined he had actually spent almost that entire period in Chicago, where he owned businesses and properties.
Global News reported that the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has described this as a “serious and deliberate deception” and a “lack of respect for the citizenship laws of Canada”. While the government maintains a firm stance against the death penalty, legal experts believe Ottawa’s objections will have minimal impact on Rana’s potential sentencing in India.
The report further said because he was extradited directly from American custody on April 20, 2025, rather than from Canada, experts said India is not bound by Canadian legal prerequisites regarding capital punishment. Both India and the US permit the death penalty, and sources said Canada’s say in the matter “does not hold much value anymore” given the circumstances of his transfer.
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WHO IS TAHAWWUR RANA?
Rana, who is currently being held by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) at their headquarters under CCTV surveillance, is a Pakistani-born Canadian businessman who served in the Pakistani military before immigrating to Canada in 1997.
Rana was previously convicted in the US in 2011 for supporting terrorism, specifically for his role in a plot against a Danish newspaper, and was later extradited to India in April 2025 to face charges related to the 26/11 attacks.
Since his arrival in New Delhi, he has been subjected to intense interrogation by the NIA, with investigators reportedly grilling him for eight to 10 hours daily on the 2008 plot that claimed 166 lives. These rounds are focused on his alleged links to the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and his childhood friend, David Coleman Headley, who conducted reconnaissance for the attacks.
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Pakistan, however, has officially distanced itself from the proceedings since the terror accused was extradited to India. It has repeatedly stressed that he is a “Canadian national”, who has not renewed his Pakistani documents in two decades.
