Toronto, May 23 (IANS) With the trial of Canadian citizen Tahawwur Hussain Rana for his alleged role in the Mumbai attacks beginning in Chicago Monday, Canadian intelligence agencies will pay close attention to the proceedings as a guilty verdict would have huge implications for the country.
Rana came to Canada in 1997 after serving as a medical assistant in the Pakistani army and became a Canadian citizen in 2001 before he set up First World Immigration in Chicago. A father of two, he maintains his family home in the Canadian capital Ottawa.
Canadian analysts say the trial could become a global 'game changer' if it establishes links of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) with the Lashkar-e-Taiba terror outfit at a time when the US suspects the ISI of sheltering Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden who was killed earlier this month.
"We can only hope our Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is paying attention. If not, they'd better book a seat in the courtroom. This is ramping up to be an international game changer," warned the daily Toronto Sun in an editorial.
The paper said: "What US officials want to know, as should CSIS, is whether factions of Pakistan's spy agency, overtly suspected of harbouring Osama bin Laden for a decade, had any role in Rana's alleged operation."
If the potential evidence against Rana turns out to be true, his trial could end up destroying whatever remains in the fragile relationship between the US and Pakistan, it said.
The paper said Rana "is no small catch. The situation is so delicate, in fact, that potential jurors this week were given a questionnaire by the court consisting of 60 questions, mostly about their views on Islam".
Since his trial begins close on the heels of Osama's killing by US special forces in Pakistan May 2, the paper said "the plot could not be any thicker. Nor the trial more timely".
Rana is accused of helping his former high school friend David Coleman Headley to undertake scouting missions to plot the Mumbai attacks and serving as a conduit for Lashkar-e-Taiba to pass its messages to Headley.
Headley, who in a plea bargain last year pleaded guilty to plotting the Mumbai carnage to avoid the death penalty, will testify against Rana.
Rana is one of the many Canadian Muslims arrested after 9/11, including those found guilty in the Toronto-18 terror plot.