In Tahawwur Rana Probe, An ISI Link, And Two Names: Major Iqbal, Sameer Ali

As Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the Canadian-Pakistani businessman and key conspirator in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, sits in a high-security cell in New Delhi, fresh interrogations and years-old indictments are peeling back layers of one of the most high-profile cases in modern Indian history.

Rana's extradition from the US, after a prolonged legal battle, has once again put the spotlight on the alleged role of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in orchestrating the three-day siege that left 166 dead, including six Americans, in Mumbai. Central to this plot are two figures: Major Iqbal and Major Sameer Ali, accused ISI operatives who have been on the most wanted list of the anti-terror body National Investigation Agency (NIA).  

According to NIA sources, Rana is expected to be grilled over Major Iqbal and Major Sameer Ali's alleged involvement and whether they coordinated with him in the days leading up to the attack.

The Handler: Major Iqbal

According to a 2018 Press Trust of India (PTI) report, Major Iqbal -identified in a 2010 Chicago indictment as a serving ISI officer - was no peripheral player. He has been accused of being the person who financed, directed, and micromanaged the reconnaissance missions conducted by David Coleman Headley, the Pakistani-American double agent whose scouting of Mumbai's landmarks enabled the carnage.

Headley, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to avoid the death penalty, has described Major Iqbal as his primary ISI handler, part of a trio of agency officials who "recruited, trained, and directed" him. In a testimony in 2011, Headley revealed over 20 email exchanges with an individual he knew as "Chaudhery Khan" - an alias for Major Iqbal.

One May 2008 email discussed exploiting Rajaram Rege, then a Shiv Sena member, to bolster their cover. "Headley had met me outside the Sena Bhavan with one Vilas Warke. He wanted me to show him the Sena Bhavan from inside but I had flatly declined his request. My meeting with him had only lasted two minutes," Rajaram Rege was quoted as saying by news agency PTI in 2016.

Another email instructed Headley to update Major Iqbal on "the projects" and surveillance equipment.

The US indictment described Major Iqbal as "a resident of Pakistan who participated in planning and funding attacks by Lashkar" and charged him with six counts of aiding terrorism and murder, alleging he funneled funds and resources to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan-based terrorist group behind the attacks. Yet, conspicuously absent from the document is any explicit mention of the ISI.

The Control Room: Major Sameer Ali

If Major Iqbal was the architect, Major Sameer Ali - another accused ISI officer - was the field marshal. According to 26/11 handler Zabiuddin Ansari (alias Abu Jundal) who was arrested by Delhi Police in 2012, Sameer Ali oversaw the attacks in real-time from a LeT control room in Karachi's Malir Cantonment, a military garrison area.  

Jundal, in his testimony, described Sameer Ali issuing directives to LeT commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi during the siege.

Interpol's Red Notice for Sameer Ali describes him as born in Lahore in 1966, fluent in Urdu, Hindi, and English, and wanted by India for organised crime and terrorism. Yet, Pakistan has repeatedly denied his existence, dismissing him as a "fictitious character."  

According to a 2012 Economic Times report, Jundal told interrogators that Pakistan's own Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) raided and destroyed the Karachi control room, weeks after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Months later, they arrested Lakhvi at Baitul Mujahideen camp in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir - though Jundal and Abu Qahafa - a combat trainer named in the indictment, escaped through a rear exit.