Trump says US has approved extradition of suspect in 2008 Mumbai attacks

President Donald Trump and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi hold a news conference at the East Room of the White House, in Washington on February 13, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 14 February 2025
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Trump says US has approved extradition of suspect in 2008 Mumbai attacks

  • The three-day attacks on hotels, a train station and a Jewish center killed 166 people in November 2008
  • India says Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba orchestrated the attacks. Pakistan denies being involved

WASHINGTON: The US has approved the extradition of a suspect in the 2008 militant attacks in India’s financial capital Mumbai in which over 160 people were killed, President Donald Trump said on Thursday in a press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The three-day attacks on hotels, a train station and a Jewish center in which 166 people were killed began on November 26, 2008. India says Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba orchestrated the attacks. Pakistan’s government denies being involved.
“I am pleased to announce that my administration has approved the extradition of one of the plotters and one of the very evil people of the world, having to do with the horrific 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack to face justice in India. So he is going to be going back to India to face justice,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Trump did not name the individual but media reports identified him as Pakistani-origin Chicago businessman and Canadian citizen Tahawwur Rana.
Late last month, the US Supreme Court rejected Rana’s review petition against his extradition.
Rana was previously sentenced to US federal prison for providing support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
Trump was also asked in the press conference about Sikh separatists in the United States, whom India calls security threats. Sikh separatists demand an independent homeland known as Khalistan to be carved out of India.
Trump did not respond directly to the question but said India and the US worked together on crime.
Since 2023, India’s alleged targeting of Sikh separatists in the US and Canada has emerged as a wrinkle in US-India ties, with Washington charging an ex-Indian intelligence officer in a foiled US plot. India says it is probing US allegations.


Trump to remove Vietnam from restricted tech list: Hanoi

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Trump to remove Vietnam from restricted tech list: Hanoi

HANOI: US President Donald Trump told Vietnam’s top leader To Lam he would “instruct the relevant agencies” to remove the country from a list restricted from accessing advanced US technologies, Vietnam’s government announced Saturday.
The two leaders met in person for the first time at the White House on Friday, after Lam attended the inaugural meeting of Trump’s “Board of Peace” in Washington.
“Donald Trump said he would instruct the relevant agencies to soon remove Vietnam from the strategic export control list,” Hanoi’s Government News website said.
The two countries were locked in protracted trade negotiations when the US Supreme Court ruled many of Trump’s sweeping tariffs were illegal.
Three Vietnamese airlines announced nearly $37 billion in purchases this week, in a series of contracts signed with US aerospace companies.
Fledgling airline Sun PhuQuoc Airways placed an order for 40 of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliners, a long-haul aircraft, with an estimated total value of $22.5 billion, while national carrier Vietnam Airlines placed an $8.1 billion order for around 50 Boeing 737-8 aircraft.
When Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs in April, Vietnam had the third-largest trade surplus with the US of any country after China and Mexico, and was targeted with one of the highest rates in Trump’s tariff blitz.
But in July, Hanoi secured a minimum 20 percent tariff with Washington, down from more than 40 percent, in return for opening its market to US products including cars.
Trump signed off on a global 10-percent tariff on Friday on all countries hours after the Supreme Court ruled many of his levies on imports were illegal.