India’s most wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim has continued to elude Indian law enforcement agencies for the last four decades. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) recently announced an award of Rs 25 lakh for any information leading to his arrest. However, Dawood continues to live safely in Pakistan, although the Pakistani establishment vociferously denied it for years.
When Dawood Ibrahim settled in Pakistan in the aftermath of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, it was a quid pro quo arrangement between him and Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence (ISI). Dawood got a safe haven in Pakistan and protection from his rivals and Indian law enforcement agencies. In return, he was expected to execute ISI’s evil designs in India using the manpower and network of his gang. The arrangement went well until 9/11 happened in New York City, following which a global war against terror was launched by the USA.
Since Dawood had been a designated terrorist, Pakistan couldn’t publicly accept that he was on its soil. India repeatedly highlighted on the international forum that Pakistan was harbouring the perpetrators of the 1993 massacre in Mumbai. This compelled Dawood to lie low and wind up his activities. In Mumbai, the police launched a violent campaign against his gang. Many of his shooters were killed or arrested under stringent laws. His brother Iqbal was deported to Mumbai in 2003 and incarcerated. Over two decades since the dawn of the new century, D-Company, as his gang is known in underworld parlance, became dormant.
Security analysts and experts of the Mumbai underworld wonder why the ISI would continue to protect Dawood if he had become a spent force for them. It seems Dawood too was aware that he was safe in Pakistan only till the time he was useful to the ISI. Hence, he devised a strategy that would sustain him in Pakistan with the same privileges and protection. The strategy was to establish marital relationships with the high and mighty families of Pakistan. From being a pawn of the ISI’s diabolical designs, he became their relative, their own man by marrying off his children, nieces and nephews to powerful personalities of Pakistan belonging to the fields of cricket, army and intelligence.
In July 2005, Dawood’s daughter Mahrukh Kaskar married cricketer Javed Miandad’s son Junaid. The highly guarded receptions were arranged in Karachi and Dubai. On June 26, 2008, Razzak, son of Dawood’s deceased elder brother Sabir, got married to Nasreen, daughter of a senior agent of the ISI. After the death of Sabir during a gang war with the Pathan gang in Mumbai in February 1980, Dawood looked after the upbringing of Razzak and it was he who arranged his marriage to Nasreen. Dawood stayed with his four brothers, namely Anees, Mushtaqim, Humayun and Noor, in Pakistan and the children of these brothers have been also married into the powerful families of the Pakistani establishment. Noora died of kidney failure in 2009, whereas Humayun succumbed to cancer in June 2016.
As per sources, Dawood is running legitimate businesses in real estate and hospitality industries in Karachi, Dubai and London from his ill-gotten money and no longer requires indulging in smuggling and extortion for income. Tiger Memon, the prime accused of the 1993 blasts, is also said to be operating a cold storage facility on the outskirts of Karachi. However, close and distant relatives of Dawood and his prominent gang member Chhota Shakeel capitalise on their names back in Mumbai and have been accused of several charges ranging from extortion, threats and money laundering.
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