New Delhi: Ahead of the extradition of Tahawwur Rana, one of the co-conspirators of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, former Union home secretary G.K. Pillai has said that while Rana had played a “small role” in the 26/11 attacks, David Coleman Headley, who was the main conspirator, was protected by the US.Pillai told The Hindu in an interview that the US had acted in “bad faith” and despite knowing about the terror plan, they let Headley continue with his “anti-India activity.”“Even post the 26/11 attack, Headley came back to Mumbai. We could have arrested him in Mumbai if we had known that he is an accomplice in terms of logistics and support. It was definitely bad faith by the Americans. It really shows that as far as the Americans are concerned, they look after only their interests, and not concerned with anybody else’s,” said Pillai.Pillai added that Headley worked as a double agent for the US government and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan.He said that following the arrest of Headley in 2009, the US government had stalled Headley’s extradition to India by offering him plea-bargaining.The former bureaucrat, during whose tenure as Union home secretary Headley and Rana were arrested by the US authorities in 2009, said that in comparison to Headley, Rana had a smaller role to play, more of a passive role in providing the legal cover for Headley to be able to come to India.“Before 26/11 happened, he (Headley) had made a number of trips to India… from India, he went to Pakistan on his U.S passport. Even our intelligence agencies did not suspect him to be a Pakistani agent primarily because he came on a U.S passport and could pass off as a white American. The Americans very cleverly concealed his Pakistani identity. Had we known he is of Pakistani origin, every time he came to India, he would have been under surveillance,” Pillai told the newspaper.
