Canada seeks to strip citizenship of terrorists linked to Mumbai attacks

The Canadian government is seeking to revoke the citizenship of a Pakistani-born businessman accused of playing a key role in the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India that killed 166 people.

Documents obtained by Global News show that immigration officials have informed Tahawwur Rana Hussain that they intend to revoke the Canadian citizenship he obtained in 2001.

The 65-year-old immigrated to Canada in 1997, and was later convicted in the United States of plotting to attack staff at a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

He is currently detained in India, where he awaits trail on charges of facilitating the Mumbai attacks carried out by Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba.

But in its decision, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada wrote that Hussain’s citizenship was revoked not because of terrorism, but because he lied on his application form.

When Hussain applied for citizenship in 2000, he claimed to have lived in Ottawa and Toronto for the previous four years, and had only been absent from the country for six days, IRCC wrote in a report.

However, an RCMP investigation determined that he actually spent almost all of his time in Chicago, where he owned several properties and businesses, including an immigration company and a grocery store.

The revocation decision accused him of “serious and deliberate fraud,” and said that a “lack of respect for Canadian citizenship laws” had led immigration officials to wrongly grant him citizenship.

“Your case is one in which you appear to have misrepresented your residence in Canada during the citizenship application process by intentionally not declaring your absence in Canada,” IRCC wrote to him on May 31, 2024.

“Your misrepresentations led decision makers to believe that you had met the residency requirements for citizenship, when it appeared you had not.”

The government said it would refer the case to the Federal Court, which has the final say on whether citizenship was obtained through “false or fraudulent statements or deliberate concealment of important circumstances.”

Toronto immigration lawyers representing Hussain, also known as Tahawwur Hussain Rana, have appealed the decision, arguing it is unfair and violates his rights.

A hearing regarding the repeal was held in Federal Court last week. Government lawyers asked the court for permission on December 19 to withhold sensitive national security information from the case.

An immigration department spokesperson told Global News that cancellation of citizenship due to misrepresentation is “an important tool to maintain the integrity of Canadian citizenship.”

To ensure the process is fair, the Federal Court makes the final decision in such cases, Mary Rose Sabater said. “The government does not take revocation of citizenship lightly.”

He said he couldn’t say how many revocations had occurred because the department doesn’t track them, but a review conducted by Global News identified just three such decisions in the past decade.

Revoking the citizenship of convicted terrorists became a political issue more than a decade ago, after Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government introduced legislation allowing Ottawa to do just that – as long as the person had a second citizenship.

During the 2015 federal election campaign, the Liberals described the law as a form of two-tier citizenship and promised to repeal the law, using the slogan “Canadians are Canadians.”

Once elected, the Liberal government repealed the law and restored the citizenship of more than a dozen convicted terrorists who had been stripped of their Canadian citizenship.

But under the Liberal government, the government continues to take steps to revoke the citizenship of Canadians involved in terrorism – even if only on the basis of misunderstanding.

In 2024, Marc Miller, then immigration minister, said he was considering revoking the citizenship of Ahmed Eldidi, who was arrested for allegedly planning an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in Toronto.

His comments came after Global News reported that the Egyptian-born Canadian had gained citizenship despite allegedly appearing in an ISIS execution video in which he dismembered a prisoner in Iraq.

Documents regarding Hussain’s case show that in 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government restarted the repeal process begun under Harper’s Conservative Party.

“It is important to note that the basis of these renovation proceedings is rooted solely in the allegation that you directly misrepresented your residence in Canada during the period of your stay relevant to Canadian citizenship,” IRCC wrote to Hussain.

“The applicant is responsible for being honest and truthful throughout the entire immigration and citizenship application process leading to the granting of citizenship.”

If the Federal Court approves Hussain’s citizenship revocation, he will retain his status as a permanent resident, meaning he can still enter Canada and reapply for citizenship after ten years.

But first he must face a high-profile trial in India, where attacks by the Islamist group he is accused of helping have had a major impact and damaged relations with Pakistan, where the terrorists are based.

The three-day siege on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, a Jewish community center and other locations in Mumbai was one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in modern history. Two Canadians were among the dead.

After the incident, Hussain allegedly said in intercepted communications that the victims “deserve it,” and that the terrorists who carried out the attack should receive medals for “bravery in battle.”

Because of Hussain’s citizenship, the case has helped reinforce India’s image of Canada as a national security threat, even though he never actually lived in the country, according to documents obtained by Global News.

Efforts by immigration authorities to revoke his citizenship are being challenged in court as Prime Minister Mark Carney seeks to restore relations with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Carney is expected to visit New Delhi, where he is seeking a trade deal, although the RCMP accuses Modi’s government of killing a Sikh activist in Surrey, B.C., in 2023, and of planning to kill other Canadian opponents.

Canada also believes India has collaborated with the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, which is responsible for many extortion rackets that spread fear in cities with large populations in South Asia.

Hussain served in the Pakistani military before immigrating to Canada as a skilled worker, crossing the border via the Windsor Ambassador Bridge on September 28, 1997, with his wife and three children.

Three years later, he applied for Canadian citizenship, and the form said he had lived in the country since his arrival. He was approved and took the citizenship oath on May 31, 2001.

But questions emerged after he was arrested in Chicago in 2009 on charges of involvement in the Mumbai attacks, as well as a plot to kill staff of Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper.

Government documents show that 12 days later, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada asked American authorities to provide details of his US immigration status and travel history.

Canada’s immigration department received an “information and documentation package” from the US Department of Homeland Security on November 26, 2009, and asked the RCMP to investigate.

The jury convicted Hussain of planning the Copenhagen attack and providing material support to Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, but acquitted him of direct involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

The RCMP completed its investigation in October 2012, and notified immigration officials that Hussain had lived in Chicago during the time he claimed to be a resident of Canada.

Although he had not spent enough time in the country to qualify for citizenship, Hussain had lied on his application form to obtain status as a Canadian citizen, according to the allegations.

Chris Alexander, then Immigration Minister in the Harper government, signed a document recommending the revocation of his citizenship due to misrepresentation.

On 10 June 2020, India requested the US to extradite Hussain to face charges for the Mumbai attacks. Two weeks later, Canadian immigration resumed efforts to revoke his citizenship.

In 2024, Canada notified Hussain that it was sending his case to the Federal Court for a decision, rejecting his complaint that he was chronically ill and thought he had met residency requirements.

“In short, I always thought that I would keep my Principal Residence in Canada,” he wrote in a letter. “In my application for Canadian citizenship, I did not intentionally conceal any material circumstances or commitments [Sic] trick.”

The US announced on April 10, 2025 that Hussain, described in a news release as a “Canadian citizen and native of Pakistan,” had been extradited to India to face 10 charges over the Mumbai attacks.

“I’m glad that day has come,” US President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, wrote in X, noting that six Americans were among those killed in the attack.

India accused Hussain of providing a false cover story to his childhood friend Coleman Headley, a US citizen who had changed his name from Daood Gilani, so that he could travel to Mumbai to scout potential LeT targets.

Using the ruse that he opened a branch of his immigration business in Mumbai, and that Headley was his office manager, Hussain allegedly helped his co-conspirators obtain Indian visas.

“Over more than two years, Headley allegedly met repeatedly with Rana in Chicago and explained his surveillance activities on behalf of LeT … and LeT’s potential plans to attack Mumbai,” the US Department of Justice wrote.

His arrival in India made national headlines, and the National Investigation Agency named the “mastermind” of the Mumbai attacks and a “Canadian citizen.”

Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca