New Delhi, Apr 10 (PTI) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday "formally arrested" Tahawwur Hussain Rana, the key accused in the deadly 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, immediately after he landed at the Delhi airport following his extradition from the United States, an official statement said.

Rana was escorted to Delhi by teams of NIA and National Security Guard (NSG), comprising senior officials, on a special plane from Los Angeles, the agency said.

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The NIA investigation team at the airport arrested Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin living primarily in Chicago (US), soon after he emerged from the airplane, after completing all the necessary legal formalities, it said.

The agency secured Rana's extradition following years of sustained and concerted efforts and after the terror mastermind's last-ditch efforts to get a stay on his extradition from the US failed.

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With the coordinated efforts of India's Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs, along with the relevant authorities in the United States, the NIA said it worked closely with other Indian intelligence agencies through the entire extradition process, which marked a major step in India's efforts to bring individuals involved in terrorism to justice, irrespective of which part of the world they had fled to.

Rana was being held in judicial custody in the US pursuant to proceedings initiated by the NIA under the India-US Extradition Treaty.

He is accused of conspiring with David Coleman Headley alias Daood Gilani, and operatives of designated terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihadi Islami (HUJI) along with other Pakistan-based co-conspirators, to carry out the devastating terror attacks in Mumbai in 2008.

A total of 166 people were killed and more than 238 injured in the deadly attacks.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)