Closing in on India's most wanted

[candypreet]

Closing in on India's most wanted
By Siddharth Srivastava

NEW DELHI - In the latest turn involving the saga of India's most-wanted man, Dawood Ibrahim, the United Nations has placed the underworld don and alleged mastermind behind the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai on the wanted list of individuals having links with al-Qaeda. According to the fresh list, Dawood figures into UN resolution 1267, which mandates that all member states freeze the assets of such individuals and prevent their entry into or transit through their territories.

The resolution also asks member countries to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale and transfer of arms and military equipment to entities belonging to the Taliban or having links with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The UN list has named Dawood as an Indian citizen, with his place of birth being Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, and having an Indian passport: A-333602. However, the world body has failed to locate his present location, though at one stage he certainly did reside in Pakistan and made frequent forays into the Gulf region for business.

In 2003, the US labeled Dawood a "global terrorist", after which it was expected there would be added pressure on Pakistan to rein in the gangster, if it could. The fact sheet on Dawood is well documented on websites such as that of the US Department of Treasury:
Dawood, the son of a police constable, has reigned as one of the pre-eminent criminals in the Indian underworld for most of the past two decades. Ibrahim's syndicate has consistently aimed to destabilize the Indian government through inciting riots, acts of terrorism and civil disobedience. He is currently wanted by India for the March 12, 1993, Bombay Exchange bombings which killed hundreds of Indians and injured over a thousand more. Information, from as recent as fall 2002, indicates that Ibrahim has financially supported Islamic militant groups working against India, such as Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT). Ibrahim's syndicate is involved in large-scale shipments of narcotics in the United Kingdom and Western Europe. The syndicates's smuggling routes from South Asia, the Middle East and Africa are shared with bin Laden and his terrorist network. Successful routes established over recent years by Ibrahim's syndicate have been subsequently utilized by bin Laden. A financial arrangement was reportedly brokered to facilitate the latter's usage of these routes. In the late 1990s, Ibrahim travelled in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban.
Not a week goes by without speculation about Dawood in the Indian media - that he lives a lavish life in Karachi, enjoys the hospitality of the top bosses in Pakistan, has married an Indian Bollywood actress, is still close to Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) agency, or has fallen out of favor. None of this has been confirmed of late.

Over the course of time, the Dawood issue has turned into a symbolic tussle of Pakistan not giving into pressures, pitchforking the gangster into the realm of India-Pakistan give-and-take politics. His aura has only grown bigger with several Bollywood films themed around his life, including one recent release appropriately called D, after his D Company gang. The actor who plays the don said in an interview that Dawood must be an intelligent man, having escaped the police dragnet for so long.

India's constant refrain has been that Pakistan has for long been harboring terrorists, including Dawood. India has made strong efforts to convince the US of Pakistan's complicity in allowing Dawood and others, such as Masood Azhar, to flourish. But to no avail. Azhar is the founder of the banned Islamic extremist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which is accused of leading several terror attacks in India. Azhar was released by India in exchange for the lives of 150 passengers traveling on Indian Airlines flight IC 814 from Kathmandu in Nepal that was hijacked in December 1999 by Pakistani nationals with links to the ISI. He continues to live and preach in Pakistan.

There is some hope now, given the changing situation in Pakistan. Yet one question often asked in India is whether the current dispensation in Pakistan has the wherewithal to tackle the monster of terrorists, who is in a big measure its own making. The current peace process between India and Pakistan has gained a new momentum, with both sides committed to making things work. But one line of thinking is that the fundamentalists and terrorists in Pakistan are now beyond the control of President General Pervez Musharraf, even if he wants to eliminate them or withdraw the support of the army. Several reports now talk of elaborate new plans to assassinate Musharraf - two attempts were made in December 2003.

Terrorists continue to strike in India, one recent instance being the bold attempt to kill passengers on the first India-Pakistan peace bus linking Indian and Pakistan Kashmir. The future does not portend well, as was further highlighted by police killing LeT terrorists who were planning major assaults in New Delhi last month.

Yet there is no doubt that the efforts of the state can go a long way in nabbing terrorists - the prime example being the arrest of Abu Faraj al-Libbi of al-Qaeda and countrywide crackdowns on militant groups. Abu Faraj's arrest follows in connection with the assassination attempts against Musharraf.

In India, the recent conviction of Aftab Ansari is another pointer. Ansari was handed a death sentence recently by an Indian court after his terror links were established. Ansari orchestrated an attack on the American Center in Kolkata in January 2002 in which five people were killed and 20 injured. The police have also traced his e-mail records to some of the perpetrators of the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center in New York. Justice has finally caught up with Ansari, though he still has the right to appeal to a higher court.

The Ansari and Abu Faraj cases bring into focus the fact that when a state turns against a terrorist network it makes the task of nabbing the militants that much easier. The arrest of Ansari came about due to the cooperation of the United Arab Emirates, when the Dubai police who nabbed him in January 2003 extradited him to India following the Kolkata attack. There are reports that suggest Ansari was looking for Pakistan's protection, which is borne out by the fact that the gangster was caught in Dubai trying to escape into Pakistan. As has been reported in Asia Times Online, Abu Faraj had been on the run for some time, trying to escape US/Pakistan intelligence agencies closing in on him.

Several commentators have talked about the changing face of terrorists and terrorism across the world. They do not rely on state support for their activities if it is not forthcoming; instead, they establish direct links with the perpetrators of crime and follow personal agendas of vengeance. They justify their actions through a warped definition of jihad, which also involves an accumulation of considerable personal wealth.

However, the examples made with Abu Faraj and Aftab Ansari do rekindle hope that more will be in the net as well.

Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi-based journalist.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GE12Df03.html

[Bman]

UPDATE


The Press Trust of India

November 29, 2005 Tuesday

US intelligence tightening noose on Dawood: report

Washington, Nov 29


US intelligence agencies are tightening the noose around underworld don Dawood Ibrahim over his linkages with the al-Qaeda terror network and alleged involvement in global drug trafficking, according to media reports.

"... US officials now have him at the centre of two investigations: one, by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), looking at his ties to the heroin trade; another, by the FBI, tracing his assets and ties to terrorist groups through a top Pakistani CD counterfeiter," The 'US News and World' magazine said in its latest edition."

Getting Dawood may be tough, as Pakistani officials deny he is even in their country. But with Washington pressing for his capture, Ibrahim, now 50, may have outlived his usefulness to (Pakistani intelligence agency) ISI", it said.

US officials told the magazine that Dawood has ties to several terror outfits including the Lakshar-e-Taiba, responsible for the recent bombings in New Delhi and for the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament.Dawood has supposedly met with al Qaeda leaders and has even made a deal to share his smuggling routes with the al Qaeda operatives, the magazine said in the cover story "The New Business of Terror."

Dawood is very much on Washington's radar screen today, with the Treasury Department designating him as global terrorist two years ago for being part of the smuggling routes of the al Qaeda and assisting terror outfits in Pakistan as well as having a hand in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, it added.

" Virtually unknown in the West, Dawood Ibrahim is a household name across the region, his exploits known by millions," the report said. "He is, by all accounts, a world-class mobster, a soft-spoken, murderous businessman from Bombay who now lives in exile, sheltered by India's arch enemy, Pakistan," it said, mentioning the extent of criminal gangs that run from Bangkok to Dubai and a network that specialises in strong-arm protection, drug trafficking, extortion and murder-for-hire."

He is far and away India's most wanted man, his name invoked time and again by Indian officials in their discussions of terrorism with US diplomats and intelligence officers."As a result of those discussions, the FBI and DEA each have active investigations into Dawood's far-flung criminal network," the report said."The big fish--the Indian mobsters, Moroccan hash dealers, and Afghan drug barons--are swimming overseas, however, and US law enforcement is starting to train its sights on the worst of them," it said.

Dawood may be operating out of Karachi and in close nexus with Pakistan's ISI; but Washington is actively pursuing "D Company's" involvement in a number of unsavoury and horrific activities, according to the report.American intelligence believes that the assets of D Company run into hundreds of millions of dollars with several thousand employees.

[candypreet]

Dawood may finally feel the heat, but for now he is globetrotting

Josy Joseph
Saturday, December 17, 2005 21:50 IST

NEW DELHI: Fresh American investigations underway against Dawood Ibrahim is being eagerly watched by Indian security apparatus, which is hopeful that the Don would finally feel the heat of growing global fight against terrorism.

But the investigations, which are part of a global effort to unravel the growing complex link between criminal syndicates and terrorism, are yet to show any impact on Dawood or his empire, according to sources.

In fact, in the past few weeks India’s most wanted criminal has been travelling to Africa and Australia where he has extensive investments in mining and other businesses, say sources.

The influential US News and World Report last week reported that the Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Bureau of Investigation are carrying out new investigations against Dawood. “US officials now have him at the centre of two investigations: one, by the Drug Enforcement Administration, looking at his ties to the heroin trade; another, by the FBI, tracing his assets and ties to terrorist groups through a top Pakistani CD counterfeiter,” said the US report.

Dawood is among the world’s leading crime lords providing logistical and financial support, believe US investigation agencies. “The boss of India’s top syndicate controls a criminal network that reaches into 14 countries, with a small army of contract killers, smugglers, and extortionists at his command. But there is another side to Dawood Ibrahim. The Muslim exile from Mumbai has thrown in his lot with Al Qaeda and other jihadists, according to the US and Indian governments, and has become one of the world’s most wanted terrorists,” says the report.

The report also points out that “in Pakistan, Dawood has ties to several terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Toiba.” Dawood has “allegedly met with Al Qaeda leaders and even made a deal to share his smuggling routes with Al Qaeda operatives,” the report further adds. Indian officials say they have been sharing these and more information regarding Dawood with the US, UK and other foreign nations. New Delhi’s efforts have led to the US and UN naming him a global terrorist and issuance of an Interpol notice but Dawood continues to have cozy existence in Karachi.

DNA sources say that there is irrefutable proof that Dawood, despite his well-publicised presence in Karachi, has been having a “free life”. In the past few weeks, after his daughter's high-profile marriage to cricketer Javed Miandad’s son, there is credible evidence of him travelling to Africa and Australia.

“What is worrying is that none of the global efforts including the move by UN and US to declare Dawoood a global terrorist have had any impact on the Pakistani administration,” says a senior security official watching the Don’s empire. In fact, he says their calculation that Pakistan would force Dawood to lie low after his daughter’s marriage irrefutably established his presence in Karachi have proved wrong. “The relation (between Dawood and Pakistani establishment) is more intense than what we know,” he said.

Indian agencies now believe that Dawood’s empire is spread across South Asia, Middle-East, Africa, Australia and even in Europe. And thousands of people, including hundreds who may never know that they work for one of world’s most ruthless terrorists and drug lords, are employed by him around the globe.

In October 2003, the US Treasury Department had designated Dawood a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist”, and the United Nations followed suit later. But the fresh investigations by the Americans, growing criticism of International Coalition against Terrorism’s failure to check further spread of terrorism, growing impatience of countries like India towards American double standards are all expected to have better effect this time.
http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1002715&CatID=9

[candypreet]

refer to this

http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27679&highlight=Dawood

[sidthereal]

hes been to australia!

also he had his daughters wedding in dubai!..how come arab states and the wedding have not come under the scanner

[candypreet]

hes been to australia!

also he had his daughters wedding in dubai!..how come arab states and the wedding have not come under the scanner
dont know about Australia, but his daughter is married to Javed Miandad ( the paki crickter) 's son. He used to live in Dubai before Karachi. The wedding was in Pakistan and the receptioon in Dubai, where it is said that he never showed up

[candypreet]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawood_Ibrahim

[candypreet]

Musharraf at it, again
M V KAMATH

When, after 9/11, five years ago, the United States asked whether Pakistan was with it or not in fighting terrorism, Musharraf had no other option but to say meekly that he was, of course, fully with Washington. Thereby he won some breathing space for himself. Now Musharraf is saying that 'a historic opportunity exists for Pakistan and India to close the chapter of tension' and that this 'must be seized by the leadership of the two countries to bring to a close the conflict in our region.'

Overnight, it seems, wisdom has dawned on Musharraf. How come? In the first place, the United States, it seems, is getting increasingly disillusioned with him.

According to The New York Times 'there is an increasing view in the US that Pakistan isn't very helpful.' The paper suggested that among the 'crucial things' that Islamabad could do is 'to permanently shoot down' Kashmir terrorist groups based on its soil.

Musharraf has totally alienated Balochistan and key Opposition leaders have spurned Islamabad's offer for talks, following the deliberate murder of Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti. The situation in Balochistan is so bad that key trade and business centres and bazaars in Quetta had to down the shutters, the Pakistani Army had to take over 500 Balochistan Student Organisation activists into custody and all in all the Balochis have lost whatever little fail they had in the Pakistani government.

According to one political commentator, Syed Nooruzzaman, 'the prevailing circumstances may force the protesting (Balochi) tribal leaders to ignore their parochial interests and concentrate on the demand for greater autonomy' and that 'one should not be surprised if it takes the form of a powerful struggle for independence'.

In other words there is a fear that Balochistan may go the Bangladesh way. Musharraf, in the circumstances, in under grave trouble. The US is apparently getting tired of Musharraf, especially after he made peace with the Taliban. Judging from what Selig Harrison, a senior school at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholar writes, the US now wants Musharraf to permit Benazir Bhutto and Nawab Sharief to return to Pakistan and organise freely. For Musharraf, that spells danger. He has yet another problem to face. This has reference to the Durand Line Treaty which lapsed as long ago as in 1993.

According to it, as soon as the Treaty lapsed, the tribal belt areas of Pakistan's North West Province are to return to Afghanistan. This was not done and now Afghanistan is putting its own pressure and if Musharraf doesn't listen, there is going to be more trouble for him. His own Army people such as the former Inter Services Intelligence Chiefs, Lt General Asad Durrani and Lt General Hameed Gul have written to Musharraf demanding that he either resign as President of Pakistan or Chief of the Army Staff. So no wonder that Musharraf wants to make his peace with India. Word is going round that Musharraf is 'likely to order a re-shuffle, if not a purge, of army commanders very soon.'

Not only has Musharraf alienated the Balochis which is bad enough, he seems to have alienated his own armed forces and the United States besides. By his treaty with the Taliban, Musharraf has made it difficult for US forces and NATO troops in Afghanistan to chase the Taliban and al Qaeda fighters who can now easily return to Pakistan. All this should explain Musharraf's new desire to be friendly towards India. One suspects that India's Prime Minister is well aware of this. As he told Indian journalists on his way back home from Cuba, 'we have to deal with consequences.'

As for the understanding with Musharraf, Dr Manmohan Singh said: 'I hope it works. But if it does not work, then also we have to deal with consequences.' There is, of course, just a possibility that the understanding could work not because wisdom has dawned on Musharraf but because his options are getting fewer and fewer. Pakistan is still unwilling to accept the Line of Control in Jammu & Kashmir. But on this issue India's stand is clear and firm. It won't compromise. But then Musharraf has been claiming that he has received concrete proposals on 'self-rule' for Jammu & Kashmir from the Indian Government via mediators and that the Indian Prime Minister has also spoken about Musharraf's proposal for 'joint management' of the State.

Obviously there are more things happening behind our backs than Delhi wants to admit publicly. It is all very well to say that India and Pakistan have agreed to establish a Joint Anti-Terrorism Institutional Mechanism, but Musharraf's honesty is on test. If he really believes in it, he should immediately expatriate Don Dawood Ibrahim and 15 and odd other Indian terrorists on Delhi's 'wanted list' now living comfortably under the protective arm of the ISI.

Musharraf must let India know who is supplying arms, equipment and money to SIMI. This can be done at once. When journalists asked Dr Manmohan Singh whether, following his long meeting with Musharraf, the 'trust deficit' has been narrowed, the Prime Minister's reply was that trust building is not a one-day process. Maybe, it is not. But it does not even takes five minutes to order the outlawing of Dawood Ibrahim, and the rest of the gang and handling over the traitors to Indian custody. That will tell us, as nothing else will, about the sincerity and honesty of Musharraf. Has Dr Singh made that claim? If he has not, what has prevented him from doing so? We may concede that in the talks that Musharraf and Manmohan Singh had, everything was 'free and frank', as the Indian Prime Minister claimed. Musharraf is a slimy character. He knows when to bend and when to hit out. According to Ghulam Nabi Azad, terrorism is again on the increase in Jammu & Kashmir. Musharraf might say that he does not have the terrorists under strict control, but that is hardly any excuse. Surely, the ISI is? Or isn't it? If he is so helpless what is the meaning of the agreement signed between India and Pakistan? On 19 September, 2001 Musharraf in a revealing TV address in Urdu assured Pakistanis sympathetic to al Qaeda and Taliban that his decision to line up with the US was a temporary expedient. So is this agreement with India also a 'temporary expedient'? Pakistan has taken India for a ride so often in the past with false promises, that one must be extraordinarily naive to believe that Musharraf is beginning to see the light. Dr Manmohan Singh is cautious enough when he says that the proposed mechanism agreed to by India and Pakistan has to be 'credible and inspire confidence'.

Past experience shows that Musharraf is untrustworthy. If the newly appointed External Affairs Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon believes otherwise, God save India.
http://newstodaynet.com/guest/0910gu1.htm

[candypreet]

The fugitive gangster, Dawood Ibrahim, is India's most wanted man.
He, along with his brother Anis Ibrahim, are charged with masterminding the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings in which 257 people died and over 700 others were wounded.

The bombings were believed to be carried out in revenge for the deaths of hundreds of Muslims in riots in 1992 blamed on the right-wing Hindu Shiv Sena party.

Ibrahim is not being tried by the special court in Mumbai which is giving a staggered verdict and is listed in police records as an "absconding accused".

Indian authorities say Ibrahim, 51, is now based in Pakistan and that he has developed links to both al-Qaeda and the banned militant group, Lashkar-e-Toiba. Delhi has repeatedly asked Islamabad to hand him over.

Pakistan has always denied that Ibrahim is in the country.

The US, which placed Ibrahim on its list of global terrorists in 2003, describes him as a "son of a police constable (who) has reigned as one of the pre-eminent criminals in the Indian underworld for most of the past two decades".

It says that Ibrahim's "syndicate is involved in large-scale shipment of narcotics in the UK and western Europe".

The US also links Ibrahim's crime syndicate to al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and says the gangster visited Afghanistan in the late 1990s.


Kingpin


"Successful routes established over recent years by Ibrahim's syndicate have been subsequently utilised by bin Laden... In the late 1990s, Ibrahim travelled in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taleban," the US Treasury list says.

India's top detective agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, says Ibrahim uses 13 aliases to hide his identity.

The gangster, according to Indian investigators, was born in the western city of Ratnagiri, the son of a police constable
The CBI says he is 5' 4'' tall and has a "mole on his left eyebrow" and that he is also "involved in extortion, forgery and cheating".

Details about Ibrahim's early life are fuzzy and almost impossible to verify - the police says the school-drop out carried out killings for the late Mumbai underworld don Karim Lala in his early years with the mob.

In the 1980's and early 1990's Ibrahim became the kingpin of Mumbai's underworld, straddling a multi-billion dollar vice empire covering prostitution, gambling and drugs.

Investigators say Ibrahim fled Mumbai to Dubai in 1986 to avoid criminal prosecution, but he continued to remain a key figure in the city's underworld.

He also prospered enough to gain a grip over the city's prolific film industry, Bollywood.

Ibrahim allegedly began financing a number of films and got some of the industry's leading actors to star in them.

"They wouldn't dare refuse an invitation (from Ibrahim)," a friend of the gangster was reported as saying.

His Bollywood connections came out in the open when he was seen on television sitting with a number of leading stars and watching international cricket matches in the Gulf city of Sharjah.

'Lavish life'

Grainy videos have surfaced of some Bollywood actors and playback singers entertaining guests at his parties in Dubai. There have been reports of a much-publicised live-in relationship with a starlet.

With many of the Gulf countries having extradition treaties with India and the police hot on his heels after the Mumbai bombings, investigators believe that Ibrahim fled to Pakistan.
The US Treasury list says that since 1992 Ibrahim has been giving money to Islamic militant groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba working against India and financing attacks in India.

In 2001, Pakistani journalist Ghulam Hasnain, researching an article on the gangster, wrote that Ibrahim's life read like a page from The Godfather, Mario Puzo's gangland classic.

"Ibrahim lives like a king," he wrote of his life in Pakistan shared by his wife, four daughters and son.


"Home is a palatial house spread over 6,000 square yards, boasting a pool, tennis courts, snooker room and a private hi-tech gym.

"He wears designer clothes, drives top of the line Mercedes' and luxurious four-wheel drives, sports half-a-million rupee Patek Phillipe wristwatch, and showers money on starlets and prostitutes."


Lavish wedding



Ibrahim is reported to have connections with some cricket players in Pakistan - former captain Javed Miandad being one of them.

Javed Miandad's son, Junaid, got married to Mahrukh Ibrahim, one of the gangster's daughters, at a lavish ceremony in Dubai last July.


But according to journalist Ghulam Hasnain, Ibrahim still missed the good life back home.

As one of his associates put it: "Mumbai was Mumbai. There we had everything, here one cannot have the life or the fun we did in India."

[candypreet]

:happy_01: a bump for the new year.....:happy_01:

[candypreet]

another bump

[candypreet]

US joins hunt to track Dawood
30 Jul 2007, 2047 hrs IST,TNN


NEW DELHI: The US has sought Pakistan's help to hunt down underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. The American investigating agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have "actively" joined in the hunt, according to Times Now.

According to intelligence sources, the FBI and the DEA authorities have described Dawood Ibrahim as 'an Al-Qaida facilitator now living in Pakistan.

The FBI and the DEA have sought cooperation from the Pakistani government to trace Dawood Ibrahim's links to Al-Qaida related Islamic local terrorist groups as well as his alleged involvement in the global heroin trade.

The DEA has also claimed that the Dawood network was involved in large-scale shipment of narcotics into the United Kingdom and Western Europe and its smuggling routes from South Asia, the Middle East and Africa have shared links with Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaida terror network.

The US agencies had sought help from Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, the Federal Investigation Agency, the Anti-Narcotic Force and the Interior Ministry.

However, only the Interior Ministry responded to the request of the American agencies, saying that no such person by the name of Dawood Ibrahim lived in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, US Federal agencies have sought cooperation from Indian agencies via Interpol in trying to track down Dawood. Home Ministry sources have said that New Delhi is clear that the first claim on Dawood is India's, since he is a citizen of India.

Sources have also told Times Now that India is keen on getting Dawood because all the leg work and initial investigations were carried out by Indian agencies.

Further, sources say that India is not averse to working collectively with US agencies to track down Dawood and that New Delhi has maintained all along that Dawood is a global terrorist.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/US_joins_hunt_to_track_Dawood_Ibrahim/articleshow/2245152.cms

[candypreet]

Mumbai: Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar is in Pakistan. That’s not what is being claimed by India but has been stated by one of Interpol’s top bosses.

The international police organisation secretary-general Ronald K Noble revealed, almost accidentally, during a conversation with HT.

“He wants to talk about the man in Pakistan,” he casually told David Chavern, the chief operating officer and executive vice-president of US Chamber of Commerce while asking him to take over the interview.

Noble was in Mumbai to attend a two-day seminar organised by Confederation of Indian Industries on counterfeiting and Intellectual Property Rights on Tuesday.

Noble evaded questions and declined to comment further on the global terrorist. During the conversation he talked about the global counterfeiting menace, “There is no concrete evidence to link counterfeiting to terrorism, apart from Irish Republican Army’s operation in the United Kingdom in the past. But intuitively there are links to suggest the involvement of transnational organised crime syndicates.”

Interpol–United Nations Security Council Special Notice features Dawood Ibrahim among the 12 most wanted terrorists alongside Osama Bin Laden and his deputy Al Zawahiri. According to the organization, Dawood Ibrahim has 26 aliases and 11 passports issued in his name and states that he resides at White House, Near Saudi Mosque, Clifton at Karachi in Pakistan.

The last passport G866537 procured by Ibrahim on August 12, 1991 is from Pakistan and Interpol reports that the passport has been misused. But ever since Dawood Ibrahim fled the country to Dubai in 1984 and later moved to Pakistan, the ‘D–Company’ chief has been the bone of contention when it came to Indo-Pak relations.

His links to Pakistan was revealed while interrogating those arrested for the 1993 Mumbai blasts.

On October 16, 2003, the UN Security Council designated him as a global terrorist under a special sanction that sought his assets to be freezed, imposed a travel ban and an arms embargo.

Since then, the dreaded mafia leader is also wanted by the United States of America for his alleged support to the Al-Quaeda and Taliban.

Richard Kolko, special agent and unit chief of FBI’s national press office had said in a recent press meet that FBI would like to have Dawood Ibrahim arrested. But Pakistan government has denied his presence in their territory. Brigadier (retired) Iqbal Cheema, Pakistan’s spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, in a recent media briefing over speculations of Ibrahim’s arrest in Quetta, reiterated that Ibrahim was not in Pakistan.



© Copyright 2008 HT Media Ltd. All rights reserved

[candypreet]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ISI_reach_will_expand_with_D-Company_merger/articleshow/2905397.cms




'ISI reach will expand with D-Company merger'
28 Mar 2008, 0217 hrs IST,S Balakrishnan,TNN
MUMBAI: The merger of Dawood Ibrahim's gang with the Lashkar-e-Toiba at the behest of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has Indian security agencies worried since the underworld gang will expand the ISI's reach in the country.

"Many members of Dawood's gang have been indoctrinated and trained in the use of weapons in the Bahawalpur centre of the LeT near Lahore. Funds are being raised by investments in real estate and SRA projects in Mumbai and through smuggling of diesel and other essential commodities through the western coast spanning from Raigad to Mangalore along the Arabian Sea. We have warned Delhi about the smuggling being carried out by the Dawood gang with impunity," a security official said.

Asked why the ISI had roped in the D-Company in LeT activities, the official said, "The underworld's penetration in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu is very deep.

By synergizing the D-gang with the LeT, the ISI's reach has increased manifold. An outfit like the Students' Islamic Movement of India could not have provided the kind of reach which Dawood's gang can provide."

Government sources brushed aside the hope in certain quarters that the installation of a democratically-elected government in Pakistan would result in a decrease in LeT inspired violence since the ISI, which is heavily infiltrated by fundamentalist elements, is known to pursue its own agenda.