n a stunning development, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) is learnt to have taken don Dawood Ibrahim into custody, along with his trusted lieutenant Chhota Shakeel and the mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai blasts Tiger Memon.
Intelligence sources said the trio was rounded up last Thursday from their hideout near the Pak-Afghan border and taken to a safe-house on the outskirts of Quetta. The sources added that the three outlaws are likely to be moved out of Quetta soon.
With the US mounting pressure on Islamabad to hand over Dawood and his accomplices who are close to Al-Qaida, the ISI is said to have acted to pre-empt possible proactive steps by Washington. Only last week, the US said that Dawood's smuggling routes converge with that used by Qaida to move arms.
As Washington was building up to some action against Dawood, the ISI is said to have cracked down on him in order to save further embarrassment to the beleaguered Pervez Musharraf regime should Dawood get caught by American forces.
The sources said it would have been tactically unwise for ISI to pick up just Dawood and not his trusted henchmen, Shakeel and Memon.
A senior intelligence officer added: "We will not be surprised if the ISI even eliminates them and confiscates their vast wealth. In any case, Dawood and the others have ceased to be of much use to the Pakistani establishment."
Dawood's brother Anees is already on the run. The first indications of the detention of Dawood and his cronies came when people working for them in Mumbai, Dubai and other places found their phones being answered by strange voices.
The men at the other end of the phones asked the callers to leave their names with the promise to pass on the message to the bhais . This has apparently never happened.
Showing posts with label Dawood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dawood. Show all posts
Monday, August 6, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
The noose tightens around Dawood
NEW DELHI: Time seems to be running out for Pakistan in its fight against terror. Islamabad, which has all along denied the presence of India’s most wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim on its soil, has now been asked by US investigative agencies to cooperate with them to hunt him down.
America’s FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are on the lookout for Dawood for his alleged links with Al-Qaeda affiliates and involvement in the global heroin trade.
This vindicates India’s consistent stand that Pakistan has been harbouring 1993 Mumbai serial blasts’ main accused. A special notice circulated among the member countries of the United Nations, which has proscribed Dawood as a global terrorist, mentions Pakistan as the base of his operations. The Interpol notice against the fugitive lists two of his known addresses and likely hideouts in Pakistan: NU 37, 30th Street, Defence Housing Authority, and White House, near Saudi Mosque, Clifton Road, both in Karachi.
Pakistan, however, has flatly denied the presence of Dawood at either of these addresses or elsewhere on its territory. That this counter-claim has not cut ice with the US is apparent as FBI is said to have shown Islamabad the proof of UN special notice featuring Karachi as one of Dawood’s bases.
According to reports, FBI and DEA authorities have described Dawood Ibrahim as “an Al-Qaeda facilitator now living in Pakistan, who has already been placed in the same category as top Al-Qaeda operatives with Interpol issuing a special notice against him”. In their communications with the Pakistani authorities, DEA has claimed that D-company was involved in large-scale shipment of narcotics into the UK and Western Europe and that its smuggling routes from South Asia, West Asia and Africa have shared links with Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terror network.
The US agencies had sought help from Pakistan’s ISI, Federal Investigation Agency, Anti-narcotics Force and the interior ministry. However, only the interior ministry responded to the US request, saying any such help was not possible since no such person by the name of Dawood Ibrahim lived on Pakistani soil.
According to the Interpol special notice against Dawood, the don has 16 aliases and 11 passports issued from India, Pakistan, the UAE and Yemen. His operations span across Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman. New Delhi is clear that the first claim on Dawood is India’s, since he is an Indian citizen and all the leg-work and initial investigations against him were carried out by Indian agencies.
India, however, is not averse to working jointly with the US agencies to track Dawood down.
America’s FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are on the lookout for Dawood for his alleged links with Al-Qaeda affiliates and involvement in the global heroin trade.
This vindicates India’s consistent stand that Pakistan has been harbouring 1993 Mumbai serial blasts’ main accused. A special notice circulated among the member countries of the United Nations, which has proscribed Dawood as a global terrorist, mentions Pakistan as the base of his operations. The Interpol notice against the fugitive lists two of his known addresses and likely hideouts in Pakistan: NU 37, 30th Street, Defence Housing Authority, and White House, near Saudi Mosque, Clifton Road, both in Karachi.
Pakistan, however, has flatly denied the presence of Dawood at either of these addresses or elsewhere on its territory. That this counter-claim has not cut ice with the US is apparent as FBI is said to have shown Islamabad the proof of UN special notice featuring Karachi as one of Dawood’s bases.
According to reports, FBI and DEA authorities have described Dawood Ibrahim as “an Al-Qaeda facilitator now living in Pakistan, who has already been placed in the same category as top Al-Qaeda operatives with Interpol issuing a special notice against him”. In their communications with the Pakistani authorities, DEA has claimed that D-company was involved in large-scale shipment of narcotics into the UK and Western Europe and that its smuggling routes from South Asia, West Asia and Africa have shared links with Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terror network.
The US agencies had sought help from Pakistan’s ISI, Federal Investigation Agency, Anti-narcotics Force and the interior ministry. However, only the interior ministry responded to the US request, saying any such help was not possible since no such person by the name of Dawood Ibrahim lived on Pakistani soil.
According to the Interpol special notice against Dawood, the don has 16 aliases and 11 passports issued from India, Pakistan, the UAE and Yemen. His operations span across Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman. New Delhi is clear that the first claim on Dawood is India’s, since he is an Indian citizen and all the leg-work and initial investigations against him were carried out by Indian agencies.
India, however, is not averse to working jointly with the US agencies to track Dawood down.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
