ramana wrote:Also please post old news items for archival purposes about DI gang.
Interpol Sends Special Notice Against Dawood Ibrahim - ToI, April 9, 2006
India’s best-known underworld figure and Mumbai blasts mastermind Dawood Ibrahim has been placed in the same category as top Al-Qaida operatives with Interpol issuing a ‘special notice’against him, which also discloses his various addresses, including one in a posh colony in Karachi. The special notice, which is circulated to UN member nations, has details of Dawood’s 11 passports and 16 aliases. Interpol now recognises Dawood as part of the worldwide terror syndicate of Osama bin Laden whose Al-Qaida is lead member of the 17-member World Jihad Council. Dawood’s operations have spanned Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman. The notice, which has also been forwarded to the National Central Bureau (Interpol, New Delhi), discloses the don’s two Karachi addresses and hints at his ‘possible’hideout at NU 37, 30th Street, Defence Housing Authority. The second one is mentioned as White House, near Saudi Mosque, Clifton Road. With the notice confirming Pakistan as the base of Dawood’s operations, it will make it more difficult for Islamabad,and the terrorist’s ISI mentors, to host him. Global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim has been aware that an Interpol notice against him was on its way and intelligence reports have indicated his growing restlessness as he hunts for safe houses in Pakistan. The details show that he had got his Pakistani passport (No.-G866537), the latest among all 11, on August 12, 1991, clearly indicating his liasion with Pakistani elements much before the 1993 Mumbai blasts.
Karachi Gang Wars - Ghulam Hasnain, Newsline, September, 2001
It was the normal afternoon traffic rush on the Malir road. As a prison van slowed down before the Malir Bridge, several armed men who were lying in wait on both sides of the bridge, showered it with a hail of Kalashnikov bullets. The shooting was so intense that none of the 10 policemen who were escorting underworld gangster, Shoaib Khan aka Shoaib Rummy walla, back to prison got a chance to even fire back. The lightning attack left four policemen dead, while Karachi's top gambling den operator, Shoaib Khan, two pedestrians and four other policemen received multiple bullet wounds. Their mission accomplished, the attackers left unhurriedly in waiting cars watched by horrified motorists. A few hours later, the police found the abandoned vehicles in nearby villages. Senior police officials believe the attack was carried out by the Haji Ibrahim Bholoo group. Bholoo, Shoaib’s former business partner, has been missing since January this year and Shoaib is being held responsible for Ibrahim Bholoo's disappearance and possible murder. Karachi’s two rival underworld gangs, both working for the notorious Mumbai don, Dawood Ibrahim, are now settling their scores on the streets of Karachi. Dawood Ibrahim and his team, Mumbai's notorious underworld clan including his righthand man Chota Shakeel and Jamal Memon, are on India’s most wanted list for a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai and other criminal activites. After the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, the gang have made Karachi their new home and base of operations. Living under fake names and IDs, and provided protection by government agencies, they have built up their underworld empire in Karachi employing local talent like Shoaib and Bholoo. The two small-time gangsters struck gold when they got in touch with the notorious Dawood Ibrahim, five or six years ago and started working for him in Karachi. In the mid '90s Shoaib started a gambling den in Dubai. It was in Dubai that Shoaib made contact with Dawood through their mutual passion for gambling. Haji Ibrahim, alias Bholoo, was a People's Party worker and a good friend of Najeeb Ahmed, a top PSF activist, as well as other Peoples Party activists. In the early '90s he left for South Africa, where he amassed a small fortune in drugs, hawala and smuggling. Then he met Shoaib in Dubai and became his business partner. Dawood Ibrahim too had extensive drug operations in South Africa. So it was inevitable that Bholoo joined hands with Dawood Ibrahim, serving as his agent in South Africa. Hostilities between Bholoo and Shoaib surfaced last year, when Shoaib asked Bholoo to arrange hit men to eliminate Dawood Ibrahim’s arch enemy, Chota Rajan. Till the Mumbai blasts, Chota Rajan was Dawood’s right hand man. After the blasts, however, he defected and formed his own group, and ganged up with RAW to hit the business interests of his former Godfather. Insiders claim that Bholoo, who in the past had carried out a number of contract killings for Dawood Ibrahim, immediately arranged for three activists of the now defunct Al-Zulfikar organisation to eliminate Chota Rajan. The three who were wanted in several criminal cases in Pakistan, were assured of protection and a generous pay-off if they carried out the hit on Rajan. The team of assassins from Pakistan, backed by some former Pakistani undercover agents, left for Bangkok to trace and eliminate Dawood’s top foe. The Pakistani hit team succeeded in tracking down Chota Rajan who was then staying in the apartment of one of his trusted friends in a fashionable Bangkok district. The team attacked in a style similar to blockbuster Indian movies. Armed with automatic weapons and wearing ties and jackets the hit team reached the upmarket apartment building carrying a cake, giving the impression to the security at the gate that they had come to celebrate Rajan's birthday. The hit team burst into the apartment and against the underworld rule of never killing women and children, fired at the wife of Rajan's top hitman, Rohit Verma. When she tried to save her husband, both Rohit and his wife were killed. Rajan locked himself in the bathroom but was injured when the team sprayed the door with bullets. Rajan managed to slip out of the bathroom window, and hid himself in a nearby garbage dump till the police came to his rescue. He later slipped out from a Bangkok hospital after bribing the police officers who had been deputed to guard him and disappeared. When the team returned to Karachi, Shoaib antagonised Bholoo by refusing to honour his commitment to pay the three Al-Zulfikar assassins their fee. Bholoo, who could not refuse to pay his former party comrades, paid them from his own pocket. On January 8, Ibrahim Bholoo, visited the Defence residence of Shoaib Khan to settle another monetary dispute involving 700,000 dollars and was never seen again. Senior police officers suspect that Bholoo is already dead, though they have yet to find his remains. Since then, the Bholoo group have been gunning for Shoaib who, moving under heavy security, consistently managed to escape the Bholoo boys. Two controversial Karachi police officials, SHO Anwar Khan and Chaudhry Aslam, have also allegedly joined the Bholoo group, to help them get Shoaib. While in South Africa, Bholoo was a key informant for the Karachi police on the activities of MQM activists taking refuge in South Africa. He was constantly feeding information to SHO Anwar Khan and Chaudhry Aslam, who were in the forefront of the army crackdown against the MQM. "When Bholoo disappeared, we thought it was our moral and ethical responsibility to help out his family," said Anwar Khan. Bholoo's family had several meetings with Dawood Ibrahim to seek his help in convincing Shoaib to divulge Bholoo's whereabouts. Shoaib, who still had the support of Dawood Ibrahim, continued to escape arrest. Then on February 21, 2001, the situation changed. There was a shooting incident on the premises of the City Courts, where armed guards from the two rival groups exchanged fire. Shoaib, who had applied for a temporary bail before arrest warrant in Bholoo's kidnapping case from Sukkur, had come to the court to get his bail confirmed. He was escorted by ranger personnel and several armed men. Bholoo's men were waiting. Both the rangers as well as Shoaib's armed guards fired at Bholoo's supporters, who they feared might force Shoaib's arrest after lawyers told Shoaib that his bail may not be confirmed. The seven ranger personnel led by Major Abdul Majeed of Janbaz Force in Thatta and Major Tariq Hameed of Karachi, are now facing a court martial. They were reported to be regular visitors at mujra performances at Shoaib's den. On the day of the shooting at the City Court, the team of rangers apparently left their headquarters on some pretext to accompany Shoaib for his protection. The incident forced the government to finally intervene and undercover agents approached Dawood and asked him to stop backing Shoaib. It worked and on June 14, Shoaib surrendered himself to the authorities. "Dawood was told that Karachi was not Mumbai. We told him to stop supporting Shoaib because he had killed an innocent man,” said an inside source. So far Karachi was infamous for ethnic and sectarian killing. But the arrival of underworld mega-bucks has brought a new dimension to the city’s crime profile as warring gangs fight pitched battles on Karachi’s streets. With Dawood Ibrahim operating out of Karachi, with the apparent blessings of the government, the Shoaib incident might well be the first of a series of Mumbai-style mafia wars.
Portrait of a Don - Ghulam Hasnain, Newsline, September, 2001
“To win the loyalty of a person is the most difficult task in the world,” Dawood Ibrahim, 46, would tell his brother gangsters. This former street urchin and son of a Mumbai police constable seems to have managed to earn it manifold. Hated by many, Dawood’s employees and associates adore him, and would go to any length for him, including murder. People who have worked for this Mumbai underworld don, known as the ‘Gold Man,’ maintain he never abandons his men. He is also unfailingly courteous and unstintingly generous. “If you are having dinner with him, he will make sure he starts after everyone else. If you ask him for money, he will never question how much you want. He hands out a substantial sum and if you ask how much of it you can keep, he says, ‘It’s all yours, take whatever you want.’” But Dawood does not brook fools either, or those who disobey him. And those who betray him usually do so at the cost of their lives. Ibrahim lives like a king. Home is a palatial house spread over 6,000 square yds, 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 a half-a-million rupee Patek Phillipe wristwatch, and showers money on starlets and prostitutes. He bought Lahore model, Saba, with whom he reportedly had a passionate involvement, a house and a car. Nor does he shirk his obligations: Mandakini, of Ram Teri Ganga Maili fame, former Bollywood actress with whom he had a child is reportedly still being supported by him. His daily regimen is also rather kingly. He wakes in the afternoon. After a swim and shower, he has breakfast. In the late afternoon, he gives his employees an audience where he briefs them on their assignments and they give him daily reports of his myriad businesses. If in the mood, he engages in a game of cricket or snooker with friends. And as the sun sets, Dawood and his party set off for any one of his ‘safe houses’ in Karachi for an evening of revelry – usually comprising drinks (Black Label is his preference), mujras and gambling. The long-married Dawood’s passion for women has made him a favoured client for local pimps. His current liaison notwithstanding, he whets his allegedly large sexual appetite with a variety of women. “He prefers virgins, preferably young girls. And he is a good paymaster. If the market rate for a woman is 10,000 rupees, Dawood pays 100,000 rupees. He is thus always surrounded by Pakistan’s top call girls,” discloses one of his family friends. Carousing through the night, Dawood and his companions quit only at dawn and collectively offer fajr prayers. This has been Dawood Ibrahim’s routine for several years.From petty street urchin to don of the Mumbai underworld, Dawood’s life makes for a fascinating story. Dawood seems to have realised early in life that crime paid. His petty exploits sometimes landed him in trouble, but his father’s position as a policeman saved him from being apprehended on several occasions. Soon the Mumbai underworld started taking note of him.Initially operating independently, Dawood formed his own gang, which grew into a mega crime network over the years. Both Hindus and Muslims worked for him, pursuing his by now multiple business interests, which included drugs, mediating in business disputes, evicting tenants from old buildings and clearing land for purposes of construction. Ibrahim’s interests soon led him to Bollywood where he became a major film financier. At his lavish parties, there was never a shortage of the mega stars of the day. “They wouldn’t dare refuse an invitation,” says a friend, who maintains that those who opted out on account of shooting schedules would suddenly find their dates had been cancelled or postponed. Growing Hindu-Muslim tension, fuelled by other underworld dons, which climaxed after the Babri mosque demolition, changed everything. The ensuing blasts in Mumbai, and the communal riots triggered by the underworld itself, caused the Dawood Ibrahim gang to splinter. One of his top lieutenants, Chota Rajan, often described by Ibrahim as one of his ‘nauratans,’ (nine jewels) defected and formed his own group consisting mainly of Hindu boys. Thereafter, Ibrahim was accused of masterminding the blasts, even though he was out of town at the time. He could never return to India. Dubai, which might have been a natural alternative residence, was ruled out because of an Interpol alert for Dawood’s arrest – the UAE and India have an extradition treaty. Thus Dawood fled to Pakistan, managing also to subsequently smuggle his family, comprising his wife, four daughters and a son, and certain close associates and their families out of Mumbai. (One daughter, 12, subsequently died of malaria and is buried in Pakistan). Today they are all Pakistani passport holders. For the Muslims of Mumbai, Dawood’s role in the blasts makes him a hero. “You cannot imagine the behaviour of the Hindus towards us before the blasts. They would hurl insults at our veiled women, ridicule us and mock our beards. The blasts changed everything. Now they cannot underestimate our strength; they are afraid of us,” said a shopkeeper from Dawood Ibrahim’s old mohalla on Mohammad Ali Road, a largely Muslim neighbourhood, whose residents shun the press and fiercely guard their privacy. In Pakistan meanwhile, Dawood managed to establish another huge empire, comprising both legitimate and illegitimate businesses. In fact, the last few years have witnessed Dawood emerge as the don of Karachi. Dawood and his men have made heavy investments in prime properties in Karachi and Islamabad, and are major players in the Karachi bourse and in the parallel credit system business – hundi. Dawood is also said to have rescued Pakistan’s Central Bank which was in crisis at one point, by providing a huge dollar loan. His businesses include gold and drug smuggling. The gang is also allegedly heavily involved in match-fixing. Dawood’s influence among the Pakistani cricket players is so well known that a senior Pakistan cricket official met Dawood to get the names of those Pakistani cricketers involved in betting. Some of the Pakistani cricket players admit that at one time or another, they have sought Dawood’s help, financial or otherwise. Javed Miandad is allegedly very close to Dawood Ibrahim, and his recent stint in cricket, despite the opposition from other players, was reportedly at Dawood’s behest. Dawood’s sphere of influence has also encompassed the business community, with businessmen increasingly approaching Dawood to settle their financial disputes with other businessmen or for financial bailouts. Some former MQM militants are apparently also working for Dawood as trouble-shooters. However, Dawood’s growing influence has irked Karachi’s powerful ethnic group, the mohajirs, who feel Dawood is trespassing on their domain as more and more people are now looking to Dawood to sort out their problems. “Earlier, whether it was a case of financial dispute or the construction or regularisation of an illegal building, people came to us for help. Now all of them are going to Dawood,” remarked a former leader of Altaf Hussain’s MQM. Dawood’s business activities are not confined to the subcontinent. His network extends to several countries of the African continent, and to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Dubai, Germany, France and UK. His net worth has been estimated at close to 30 billion rupees. Meanwhile, not only have the Pakistani authorities turned a blind eye to the gang’s activities within Pakistan, but many in the corridors of power have partaken of Dawood’s hospitality. Dawood often throws lavish mujras for Pakistani politicians and bureaucrats. A recent guest was a former caretaker Prime Minister. These are not the only members of the establishment who have close ties with Dawood. He is said to have the protection of assorted intelligence agencies. In fact, Dawood and his men move around the city guarded by heavy escorts of armed men in civvies believed to be personnel of a top Pakistani security agency. A number of government undercover agents, who came into contact with Dawood because of their official duties, are now, in fact, working for him. “A major serves him a glass of water. Nearly all the men who surround him for security reasons are either retired or serving officers,”claims an MQM activist. “And he keeps them happy – buying them expensive apartments and showering them with favours. So they are more loyal to Dawood than the government of Pakistan.” Why is he allowed to operate with such impunity? According to informed sources, Dawood is Pakistan’s number one espionage operative. His men in Mumbai help him get whatever information he needs for Pakistan. Rumour has it that sometimes his men in Karachi accompany Pakistani intelligence agents to the airports to scan arriving passengers and identify RAW agents. Both Dawood and his lieutenant Chota Shakeel, who have international satellite telephones and mobile roaming facilities, are in constant touch with their people in India and are allegedly able to garner valuable information for local agencies. But Dawood has not severed all ties with India – or even with Hindu nationalists. Dawood and his men might claim to be the champions of the Indian Muslims, but he continues to have close business ties with the Hindu mafia. One of his close associates claims that Dawood even has joint business interests with the son of the Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena leader, Bal Thackeray, public pronouncements of fierce enmity between the two notwithstanding.There is evidence to indicate that Dawood is also still financing Bollywood films. Early this year, the Mumbai police arrested Bharat Shah, the producer of the Indian film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, after proving that the film was financed by Dawood Ibrahim. And there is nostalgia for the home left behind. Dawood is said to often cry for Mumbai. “Mumbai was Mumbai. There we had everything, here one cannot have the life or the fun we did in India,” said one of Dawood’s associates.
The author, Ghulam Hasnain, was abducted by the ISI and tortured immediately after this.
Dons Heading for a Coalition Era - ToI, Nov 5, 2004
Said an officer, “Businessmen and builders are going to Karachi to meet Dawood regularly. The modus operandi is simple. One has to book a flight from Mumbai to Dubai via Karachi.When the plane lands at Karachi for a two-and-a-half-hour halt, an ISI agent whisks you out of the airport and takes you to a place where you can talk to Dawood for about an hour before being brought back to the aircraft. You then fly to Dubai and return to Mumbai, without any proof (on passport) of having alighted at Karachi.’’
Heroin and Dawood Link - ToI, June 7, 2006
Dawood, who was recently designated as the international drug lord by the US under its Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Act, is said to be the mastermind behind the heroin that is smuggled to Europe using India as a transit route. Some of the contraband, that flows out of Afghanistan via Pakistan, finds its way to the Indian market for local consumption. Iqbal Mirchi, a close associate of Dawood Ibrahim, is the front who runs the underworld don’s drug empire, said K C Verma, director-general of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) here on Tuesday. Mirchi, who is already listed under the Kingpin Act, is considered to be one of the top 50 drug lords across the world. The Kingpin Act is targeted at limiting the financial transactions of drug lords and their organisations the world over. Sources said Dawood’s reported nexus with Osama bin Laden was one of the reasons that forced the US to designate the don under the Kingpin Act. Dawood had reportedly met bin Laden post 9/11 and had offered him his drug network to be used to help al-Qaida terrorists to escape Afghanistan. About 80% of the heroin smuggled into Europe is sourced from Afghanistan using India and the CIS countries as the transit route. A majority of the trade is controlled by Dawood’s network using Africans as conduits, sources added. Iqbal Mirchi, who now reportedly lives in Hornchurch in UK, fled India for Dubai when cases were booked against him in Mumbai under the NDPS Act in 1993-94 for running a drug syndicate in the country. Later, when India sought his deportation from the UAE authorities, the 55-year-old Mirchi shifted his base to UK.
Dawood Ibrahim Leading a Prisoner's Life in Karachi - Khalid Hasan, Daily Times, July 14, 2004
A new biography of Dawood Ibrahim, the gangland figure from Mumbai who is wanted in India on various charges, says he is leading a prisoner-like life in Karachi. The Pakistani authorities have repeatedly denied such allegations. ‘The Most Dangerous Man in the World,’ which is what author Gilbert King has chosen to name his “unauthorised” biography, said in an interview published in India Abroad, the New York-based journal, that Mr Ibrahim is not allowed to move freely. After his expulsion from UAE, no country other than Pakistan was willing to accord him asylum. “But his power and capability in the underworld remain undiminished; he can still do what he wants,” the author claimed.
Anees Ibrahim's Cook Gives Clues on Don's Whereabouts - The Hindu, April 24, 2006
Jabrail Khan, who reportedly worked as a cook at the Karachi bungalow of Dawood Ibrahim’s brother, Anees Ibrahim Kaskar, has provided valuable information on the whereabouts of the dons and their kin living in other countries. Khan left for Dubai on a Pakistan Airlines flight, but alighted at Karachi, where Anees’ accomplices received him and took him to his Clifton Road bungalow. The same day, Khan met Anees. In due course, Khan also met Dawood. Khan reportedly told his interrogators that Dawood lived in the Clifton Road defence area. His brother Humayun, who was once a drug addict, lived in a bungalow nearby with his family. Two more brothers, Noora and Musatkim, were based in Saudi Arabia and kept visiting Karachi at regular intervals. His fifth brother, Iqbal, is lodged in a Mumbai jail. Khan allegedly disclosed that all those working at Anees’ residence were either `Pathans’ or were from Kashmir.
Dawood Ibrahim continues to recruit Indians for the jihad against India.
Mumbai Arrests Cast Light on jihadi-mafia Nexus - Praveen Swami, The Hindu, March 16, 2010
Dawood Ibrahim Kaksar believed in the kind of paradise built with bricks and hard cash. His last known home in Karachi sprawled across 6,000-square metres, complete with a private swimming pool, gym and tennis courts. In the evenings, he would travel in a car picked from his fleet of Mercedes, clad in designer suits, a $1,000 Patek Philippe watch on his wrist, for all-night orgies. “Dawood and his companions,” the Pakistani investigative journalist Ghulam Husnain recorded in a 2001 exposé, “quit only at dawn and collectively offer Fajr [dawn] prayers.” For years, India's intelligence services have been watching the emergence and flowering of a curious alliance between Dawood Ibrahim's Karachi-based organised crime empire and Pakistan's jihadists: men driven by the belief that the sacrifice of life in god's name will unlock the gates of a very different kind of paradise. Last week's arrest of Mumbai residents Abdul Latif Sheikh and Riyaz Ali for plotting terror attacks on Mumbai has once again focussed attention on these linkages. Bashir Khan, a Dawood lieutenant wanted for his role in planning the 1993 serial bombings in Mumbai, is alleged to have recruited the two men and supervised their operations. Driven by their common pursuit of power and legitimacy, enabled by decades of communal violence, and orchestrated by Pakistan's feared Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, the alliance enabled the emergence of a jihadist movement drawn from India's cities — and continues to do so. Dawood's alliance with the ISI began as a desperate effort to protect his empire. Estimate suggests that until 1991 Dawood's organised crime networks smuggled almost 200 tonnes of gold into India each year. However, the liberalisation of gold imports in 1992 led to the collapse of this enterprise. Pakistani narcotics traffickers Yusuf Godhrawala and Taufiq Jallianwala are believed to have carried overtures from the ISI in 1992, offering Dawood a share in their trade in return for funnelling weapons into India. By most accounts, Dawood initially resisted the pressure. After the anti-Muslim violence that followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid, though, hardline members of his networks like Mushtaq Abdul Razzak ‘Tiger' Memon are believed to have demanded retaliation. In January 1993, Dawood ordered his lieutenants to act. “Dawood Ibrahim exhorted us to rise in rebellion against the Hindus,” recalled gangster Salim Mirza Sheikh — known in Mumbai's underworld as ‘Salim Kutta,' or Salim the Dog — in a statement to police. Hundreds of kilograms of military-grade explosives, along with assault rifles and grenades provided by the ISI, were landed off the Maharashtra coast in early 1993. Bashir Khan played a key role in the operation — as well as the serial bombings which followed. Dawood's alliance with the ISI began as a desperate effort to protect his empire. Estimate suggests that until 1991 Dawood's organised crime networks smuggled almost 200 tonnes of gold into India each year. However, the liberalisation of gold imports in 1992 led to the collapse of this enterprise. Pakistani narcotics traffickers Yusuf Godhrawala and Taufiq Jallianwala are believed to have carried overtures from the ISI in 1992, offering Dawood a share in their trade in return for funnelling weapons into India. By most accounts, Dawood initially resisted the pressure. After the anti-Muslim violence that followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid, though, hardline members of his networks like Mushtaq Abdul Razzak ‘Tiger' Memon are believed to have demanded retaliation. In January 1993, Dawood ordered his lieutenants to act. “Dawood Ibrahim exhorted us to rise in rebellion against the Hindus,” recalled gangster Salim Mirza Sheikh — known in Mumbai's underworld as ‘Salim Kutta,' or Salim the Dog — in a statement to police. Hundreds of kilograms of military-grade explosives, along with assault rifles and grenades provided by the ISI, were landed off the Maharashtra coast in early 1993. Bashir Khan played a key role in the operation — as well as the serial bombings which followed.
Hats off to whoever conducted the op.
