Wanted
Desperately: Dawood Ibrahim, the Test of Musharraf's Sincerity
By
Siddharth Srivastava
NEW
DELHI - While all attention is focused on Osama bin Laden and
his cohorts allegedly cornered in western Pakistan, in India there
is an equal amount of interest in the one man who is wanted just
as desperately - Dawood Ibrahim.
Reports
quoting intelligence sources and independently confirmed by home
ministry officials say that India's most wanted criminal - thought
to be hiding in Pakistan - is facing the heat at the instance
of none less than Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf.
The
reports say that Dawood's personal security guards, derived from
the cream of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency,
have been removed. Ibrahim is now said to be on the run, and some
reports say that he has shaved his mustache and is contemplating
plastic surgery to take on a new identity and passport.
Following last week's foreign-secretary-level
India-Pakistan talks, which ended with a clear time-frame and
a positive roadmap for future dialogue, this crackdown on Dawood
is music to India's ears. Such is the keenness in India that Pakistan
nab Dawood that officials say that this one step by the Pakistan
establishment could propel Indo-Pak relations to levels that have
never been witnessed since the time of partition in 1947, during
which the two countries have fought three wars and one near-war
at Kargil in 1999.
The
hunt for Dawood is taking place following Pakistan's realization
that flushing out terrorists and jihadi elements has become a
necessity for its own survival.
Pakistan
has currently amassed 20,000 troops along the Afghanistan border
for what is being believed to be a decisive battle against bin
Laden and al-Qaeda militants. But what might be more than a coincidence
is that Pakistan's sudden willingness to flush out Dawood comes
amid reports in the Indian media that a timely tip-off by the
Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) helped
foil a third assassination plot against Musharraf. Two abortive
attempts have been reported in the past few months. There is,
however, no doubt in anyone's mind that Dawood is indisputably
the number one criminal wanted by India, and what has rankled
is that he has for long used Pakistan as a base.
"If Dawood is nabbed, it will
be the biggest step Pakistan undertakes to curb cross-border terrorism
on the eastern side of the border," said an official with
the Foreign Ministry. India Defense Minister George Fernandes
has already hinted that India has some information about the Pakistan
army dismantling terror camps and infiltration along the India-Pakistan
border.
It is the nature of the crimes attributed to Dawood that place
him at the top of India's most wanted wish list. The son of a
police constable, he is the prime suspect in masterminding a series
of bomb blasts that occurred in a single day in 1993 in Mumbai
(formerly Bombay), the financial heart of India, killing 260 people
and injuring 1,000.
Dawood figures in a list of 20 fugitives
that India wants Pakistan to hand over and is suspected to be
the prime player used by Pakistan's ISI to foment cross-border
terrorism in India. Ever since September 11, India has been trying
to impress on the United States Dawood's links with al-Qaeda and
the Lashkar-e-Toiba - one of two groups India blames for a bloody
2001 raid on its parliament that triggered a military standoff
with Pakistan and brought the neighbors close to a fourth war.
It
is estimated that in Mumbai alone, Dawood and his family own assets
worth US$430 million. This includes several buildings at prime
locations such as Colaba, Crawford Market, Bhendi Bazar, Bandra,
Oshiwara and Versova. Many of these are benami (fictitious
names), which makes it difficult to seize them. The family has
several builders, stockbrokers and jewelers fronting for it. Apart
from this, Dawood has vast business interests in the hospitality
industry in the United Arab Emirates, Canada, Australia and India.
Several shopping malls in the West and Australia are also reportedly
owned by the family. Dawood has also allegedly began operating
an airline from a Central Asian republic.
India has made a strong effort to
convince the US of the complicity of Pakistan allowing Dawood,
as well as others such as Masood Azhar, to flourish. Azhar is
the founder of the Islamic extremist group, the banned Jaish-e-Mohammed
that 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.
Pakistan has always denied that Dawood
resides in the country, though several Indian journalists have
reported on his lavish lifestyle in the port city of Karachi.
But, as the global consensus against terrorism has grown post-September
11, the US has taken notice of India's apprehension. Last year,
the US labeled Dawood a "global terrorist". The US Treasury
department linked Dawood to al-Qaeda and backed India's claim
that he was hiding in Pakistan, listing his address as Karachi
and holding a Pakistani passport.
The US notification had in one stroke
nailed as a lie Pakistan's repeated assurance, until the recent
turnabout, that it had not provided a safe haven for the fugitive
terrorist. The citing of his Pakistani passport also suggested
official complicity. "This designation signals our commitment
to identifying and attacking the financial ties between the criminal
underworld and terrorism," Juan Zarate, deputy assistant
secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, said in
a statement.
Indeed,
the designation was the result of close and painstaking cooperation
between the top leaderships in India and the US, as well as the
intelligence agencies. The fact sheet on Dawood on the web site
of the US Department of Treasury sounds as if it has been drafted
after close consultation with India. Ultimately, it took a personal
meeting between Indian Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and US
President George W Bush in June last year to impress on him the
links of Dawood with the al-Qaeda.
Belated as this American "discovery"
of Dawood was, it nonetheless exposed Pakistan's duplicity about
Dawood's notorious "D-company" and, by implication,
the role of both in sponsoring trouble in India. The Musharraf
regime is under pressure now and undergoing a change of face and
hopefully heart. Reports suggest that Dawood might be trying to
leave Pakistan - but he may be running out of options. Dubai,
the one safe haven of several terrorists wanted by India, where
Dawood was holed up for some time, will no longer welcome him.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and India have signed an extradition
treaty with several wanted men already being sent back to India.
The UAE government considers terror outfits holed up in Dubai
as inimical to its business interests that rest largely on tourist
shopping.
At a briefing to the press this week,
home ministry officials in Delhi said that the Indian government
does not want to reveal too much information about the ground
level operations that are in place, to prevent jeopardizing the
process, as well as in keeping with the new diplomatic understanding
of keeping relations subtle and understated.
But, everybody agrees that nailing
Dawood will be one feather in the cap of the ongoing Indo-Pak
peace process that can never be removed. He is India's Osama.
The
writer is a New Delhi-based journalist and wrote this article
for Asia Times Online
