26/11: Rana?s trial on, US questions Pak

As the Chicago hearings in the 26/11 case began on Monday with suspect Tahawwur Hussain Rana going on trial after being indicted last week, the US has demanded Pakistan?s response on its alleged involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks.

The trial is likely to expose links of the Pakistan spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) with the Mumbai attacks, putting further pressure on the country to expedite its actions against the 26/11 accused currently running free in the south Asian nation.

“We have asked the Pakistani Government to address those allegations in the past,” said State Department spokesman Mark Toner.

Without giving further details, Toner said: “There’s a legal process underway, and anything I say from here can obviously… I think we have been clear, again, that this is an ongoing legal process, trial, and so I can’t say a lot about it.”

“But speaking globally about the Mumbai attacks, we have asked that all parties answer questions that have been raised by the Mumbai attacks,” Toner said.

Meanwhile, Rana?s trial began with the selection of jury at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse.

One hundred jurors filled out the questionnaire in the court room. According to reports, the 60 questions mainly dealt with Islam and what the jurors feel about the religion.

US District Court Judge Harry Leinenweber will question them on Tuesday and the jury is expected to be finalized by Thursday.

Rana, accompanied by his attorneys -Patrick Blegen and Charlie Swift- were also present at the court room.

“It is the beginning of jury selection and jurors are filling out the questionnaire even as we speak. It’s the best way to select a jury,” Blegen told reporters.

Asked about Rana?s behaviour in the court, Blegen said: “Mr Rana is very nice and polite and is handling a difficult situation with grace and much better than I’d be handling it.”

Swift maintained that Rana is not guilty.

?There is only one verdict the jury will reveal – not guilty,” Swift said.

According to reports, Rana is likely to state that he and co-accused David Headley were recruited on behalf of Pakistani spy services, even though his lawyers last month rubbished the reports and denied any ?knowing involvement? in the 26/11.

A report in The Globe and Mail newspaper had first claimed that both Rana and his friend Headley will say that they believed themselves to be working for both the Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT), a terrorist group, and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan?s spy agency.

The US government on May 9 filed a second chargesheet in a Chicago court in the 26/11 terror strike in Mumbai naming five people as accused in the case of “conspiracy to maim, murder and bomb places of public use in India”.

The chargesheet filed in the US court named the five accused as: Sajid Majeed, Abu Qahafa, Mazhar Iqbal, Major Iqbal and a Lashkar-e-Toiba member known as D.

The accused were named in the Tahawwur Rana case. Rana is a Pakistani Canadian and like Pakistani American David Coleman Headley is involved in the Mumbai attack who was indicted along with several other suspects.

All accused were charged, last week in the district court in Chicago, though none of them is in custody of the US government.

US paper Chicago Tribune said Tahawwur Hussain Rana is alleged to have provided a cover for the scout (Headley) “who checked out locations for the deadly rampage and acted as a messenger for the Pakistani terrorist group allegedly behind the 2008 attack.”

In the worst terrorist attacks in India, Pakistani-trained gunmen laid siege on Mumbai since November 26, 2008, killing over 160 people, including foreigners, in attacks on a railway station, luxury hotels and a Jewish centre, among other targets.

Rana, who was arrested along with Headley by the US? Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Illinois, is accused of providing terrorists with the false credentials they used to pick targets in Mumbai.

LeT is blamed for the attack, though Pakistani government?s hand is also suspected ? a charge refuted by the country where 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden was found in a garrison town, just 60 km north of capital Islamabad.