Dawood's Indian Empire
On the night of May 17, hours after two hit men had shot and killed the driver of Iqbal Kaskar, brother of India's most wanted don and suspected terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, the Mumbai Police posted two constables at the door of Kaskar's home in Mumbai's Bhendi Bazaar.
Kaskar, who has been the operating head of Dawood's multifaceted Indian business empire for nearly a decade, has a posse of security befitting an underworld don. His personal bodyguards carry unlicensed Smith and Wesson pistols. The murder of the driver, Arif Syed, stunned the underworld, as well as the police. No one had dared to raid the headquarters and heart of Dawood's operations, an unpretentious building in Pankhmodia Street, ever before.
The audacious killing was a signal from a rival gang that the fabled Dawood family and its "tiger den" were not beyond their bullets. Dawood himself, as is known, lives in Karachi under protection from the Pakistan authorities.
Why did the Mumbai Police send the constables, who we saw during our investigations and who are still there at the time of writing? They had not come to arrest Kaskar, who should be on top of any Indian police officer's most wanted list. The cynical view is that the police are interested more in the safety of Kaskar than his incarcenation since the underworld is such a lucrative source of hush-money. Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Deven Bharti says the constables are only for "discreet watch."
The police have certainly been brisk about picking up the hitmen-Billal Sayyed, 29, and Indralal Khatri, 28-who killed Kaskar's driver. That would be of much comfort to the Dawood gang, and a signal that they have friends in the right power cicles of India.
Kaskar was deported from Dubai in 2003 along with gangster Ejaz Pathan. Dawood, under severe pressure after Osama bin Laden's killing, heard of the murder while planning the wedding of his son, Moin, in Nairobi. He stayed back in Karachi and sent his wife, Mehjabeen, 48, to handle the celebrations. He even cancelled a proposed video conference to bless the couple.
Officers of the Mumbai Crime Branch say Dawood, who suffers from a heart ailment, has already asked his lieutenant Chhota Shakeel to seek revenge. "We are expecting some retaliatory action in Mumbai soon," says Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Bharti. Shakeel spoke to the Aaj Tak news channel from Dubai and said he was convinced that Dawood's arch-rival Chhota Rajan's friend, Ubed, had planned to kill Kaskar's driver as part of a larger conspiracy to eliminate Dawood's people.
According to Indian intelligence, Dawood, who lives in Karachi along with his brother Anees and lieutenants Chhota Shakeel, Tiger Memon, Aftab Batki, Edda Yakoob and Fahim Machmach, has been planning to shift base. He has shortlisted four African nations as possible destinations: Somalia, Zimbabwe, Congo and Sudan. Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials claim Dawood is trying to acquire vast tracts of land in Africa that can be sub-let for agricultural production. "His operatives are in touch with tribal chieftains," says an IB official.
Dawood's rivals, obviously, see this as a sign of weakness in a man who was once considered the "wallet" of the sub-continent's underworld. There is a feeling that Dawood is possibly making some moves under pressure. "For Rajan, it was the perfect time to send a signal to his rival," says Singh, warning that it would be wrong for anyone to presume Dawood would buckle under pressure.
It all boils down to territorial control, in India and abroad. In India, Dawood runs a Rs 10,000 crore plus operations that includes illegal mining, fake currency, betting syndicates, arms smuggling, real estate and commodities market investments and garments business in two-tier cities.
The don wants to collaborate with Maoists in mineral-rich states like Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh so that he has a larger grip on the Rs 400 crore illegal mining racket in the country's coal belt. "Last year, he paid Rs 25 lakh to a Chhattisgarh operative but was conned. He is now trying to use the Maoists in Nepal to touch base with their counterparts in India and offer them arms and ammunition," Home Secretary G.K. Pillai told India Today. "He wants control over some of the mines," added Pillai.
Besides coal, he wants to retain the lion's share of the $2.5 billion fake Indian currency note (FICN) market through Aftab Batki who, from Dubai, looks after the operation in India. Once he sent fake currency on ships meant to carry foodgrain. After Indian ports went on high alert, he began using the Nepal and Bangladesh routes. With the recent arrest of K.M. Abdullah, the Dubai-based conduit for his India operations, in Kerala, Dawood is looking for new partners. "Nepal has been the base for his currency operations for more than a decade," said Rajkumar Vhatkar, Deputy Commissioner of Mumbai Police (Operations). With tacit support from the Nepalese government, Dawood transports arms and fake currency from Pakistan for supply across India. Two years ago, he set up two arms-manufacturing units in western Nepal with the backing of the Maoists.
His other operation in Nepal is in the country's stock exchange. Nepali Home Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara had tried in vain to raise the issue with his Cabinet colleagues and offered them details of Dawood's benami investments in the stock market and some local banks in Nepal. Mahara's moves were countered by Prakash Dahal, the 29-year-old son of Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda, and Sarina Begum, a senior politician, who was reportedly present at the marriage ceremony of Dawood's daughter with former Pakistani cricket captain Javed Miandad's son. IB operatives in Dubai tracked a consignment of Nepalese jewellery that was sent by Begum through her friends in India for Dawood's daughter. Dahal had met up with Dawood's men in Dubai, claim Indian intelligence officials. Dahal has been under fire for his underworld links for quite some time.
Former Nepal prince Paras also has business links with Dawood and has helped the don run casino businesses in Kathmandu and Pokhara and over 1,000 dance bars in Thamel and Sondhara areas of Kathmandu.
The don ventured into the garments business last year. He set up a manufacturing unit on the outskirts of Shanghai and Rs 2,000 crore worth of supplies were flown to India illegally through the border towns of Nepalganj and Biratnagar. Indian Customs officials say the exchequer loses an estimated Rs 500 crore in taxes every year but no action has been taken against the garment smugglers and traders.
"That's illegitimate, something Dawood has always been associated with. But he is also getting into a host of legitimate businesses," said former IB chief A.K. Doval.
Dawood, listed in Mumbai Police records as an "absconding accused" and charged-along with his brother Anees Ibrahim-with masterminding the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings, is trying hard to gain legitimacy in his businesses. In India, he has been working overtime to develop links with top realtors. Some of them, claims Mumbai Police, were in touch with the don and had sought funds for developing real estate across Maharashtra. One of the co-owners of DB Realty, Vinod Goenka, currently in jail after being charge-sheeted in the 2G spectrum scam, has been investigated for his underworld links.
Iqbal Kaskar
Iqbal Kaskar waves at his supporters after he was granted bail in 2007.
In 2007, Mumbai-based builder Umesh Gandhi was arrested after Iqbal Attarwala, an aide of Dawood, named him in a land-grabbing case in Malad. The police got a clue of Dawood's real estate business after they arrested Karimullah Khan, an accused in the 1993 blasts, in 2008. Khan revealed details of Dawood's benami investments in real estate markets across India and legitimate investments in Karachi, along with his close associate Tiger Memon, the other mastermind of the 1993 blasts. An officer with Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) says they have specific information that several housing projects surrounding the ATS office in Mumbai's Byculla neighbourhood were funded by Dawood's men. "We are verifying the inputs," he said.
There are also legitimate investments that come through proper channels. Sources at the Bombay Stock Exchange say funds from Dawood and his associates now come through the foreign institutional investor (FII) route. "Unless mechanisms are in place, from where do the fiis got their funds?" asks Hemen Kapadia, a broker. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) tried to track such investments. SEBI even tried checking dubious realtors. "Even that did not help them get a grip on Dawood," says Kapadia.
In 2009, IB officials worked on a tip that terrorists had invested in Indian stock and commodities markets and Dawood was instrumental in channelising some investments because of his proximity with several business magnates in the oil-rich Gulf countries. Dawood's clout with the sheikhs was evident after the fugitive was seen actively participating in buzzard-hunting expeditions near the Guddu and Sukku barrages across the Indus river in Pakistan. But investigators made little headway into tracking investments made by Dawood and his syndicate in specific stocks.
Dawood was recently involved in an effort to bail out the cash-starved Pakistan Railways. Early this year, ISI, which provides him protection in Karachi, had asked him to divert some of his cash to ensure smooth functioning of the railways. The request was made when, in a series of strange incidents, freight trains loaded with grain and cement ran out of fuel across the country. According to IB, the request came after senior ISI officials and some Pakistani politicians drew up a list of rich people with the capacity to invest. "His tobacco products, sold under the brand name Fire, are a rage in Russia, the Middle East and Afghanistan. He has investments in the Karachi stock market, construction companies, malls, cement companies and an oil company in the Gulf. His business turnover is over Rs 20,000 crore," says an IB source.
His links with Mumbai film stars diminished after the 1993 blasts but Dawood has now acquired controlling interest in the Dubai-based Al-Mansoor Video and Karachi-based SADAF Trading Company, both known for selling pirated Indian films across Asia, Europe and the United States. SADAF's biggest market is India, where, due to lax anti-piracy laws, sales are relatively easy. SADAF, claim intelligence officials, controls almost 70 per cent of India's $1 billion piracy market.
Though passionate about cricket, the don cannot visit stadiums to watch matches in Pakistan or the Middle East. He, however, controls Asia's biggest betting syndicate through his Karachi-based aide, Shoaib Khan, and Dubai-based partner, Sunil Dubai. In the recent World Cup cricket tournament, where text messages about the final outcome of matches involving India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were sent to millions of fans hours before the start of the ties, fingers were pointed at Dawood who is said to have raked in millions from the $6 billion betting operation that stretched for nearly two months. "His operatives know their business, they even watch weather reports on international wires before placing their bets," said Singh who tracked members of D-company closely during the gang wars of the early 1990s in Mumbai. "His focus remains countries like India and Nepal where he can provide the infrastructure required to carry out his operations," said Doval, adding,"no wonder he is heading to Africa."
The don's old business interest is narcotics, which he runs through his London-based confidant Iqbal Mirchi, also an accused in the 1993 blast case. Mirchi, who runs some casinos in East London with funding from Dawood, was approached by IB officials to turn approver in 2003 but he refused saying he feared for his life in Mumbai. The enraged Indian government auctioned his sprawling Bhopal bungalow in 2007 for Rs 4.84 crore.
Dawood has been procuring his drug supplies from Al Qaeda in Afghanistan since 1998. Al Qaeda uses Dawood's channels to transport narcotics, money and terrorists from Afghanistan. In return, Dawood provides finance to Lashkar-e-Toiba for its anti-India activities. Dawood also used his Al Qaeda connections to enter Afghanistan's illegal Scotch whisky trade which uses mules to carry the spirit into Pakistan for bottling. The liquor is then taken in dhows to Dubai and other African destinations from Karachi port.
Dawood's attempt to gain legitimacy is born out of desperation. "His vice-like grip on Mumbai Police and politicians doesn't exist anymore," said Bharti. Agrees Singh, who had trouble keeping secrets from moles in his office: "I fought two wars, one with Dawood's men and one with my moles."
With many of his foot soldiers and sharp-shooters eliminated in encounters, Dawood now recruits shooters from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka and Nepal on part-time basis so that the police cannot track such killers. What is still intact is his political support. In the early '90s, it was rumoured that around 75 politicians owed their entry to Parliament to Dawood though none could confirm his clout because there was nothing on paper. Politicians such as Bhai Thakur and Suresh alias Pappu Kalani were arrested for links with Dawood around the same time. An MLA in the Maharashtra Assembly is presently under the scanner of the Intelligence Bureau for his alleged links with the don.
Dawood is feeling the heat. The killing of Osama bin Laden has exposed once again Pakistan's duplicity in the protection of wanted terrorists. Dawood owes his freedom to ISI-and to India's lack of political will.
Why we can't Get Him
Dawood Ibrahim figures at a lowly number 8 on the home ministry's now-withdrawn dossier of the 50 most wanted fugitives from the law in India. Way below Lashkar-e-Toiba head Hafiz Mohammed Saeed and even Major Sameer Ali of the ISI. He is wanted for "conspiracy to cause bomb explosions in Mumbai in 1993 with intention to cause death". Nearly 18 years after the 1993 serial bombings that killed over 250 people, memories may be fading. The isi trained Dawood's gang members to wield arms and plant explosives. It also shipped in nearly three tonnes of RDX, ak-47s and grenades. Yet the bombings are still treated as a criminal case than an ISI-backed terrorist plot like the 26/11 attacks. This has further weakened India's case against Dawood. "Dawood does not get the kind of attention that Hafiz Mohammed Saeed or Maulana Masood Azhar gets," says an Indian intelligence official. That could be because the Dawood gang is still seen as an underworld outfit and not a terrorist group like the Lashkar-e-Toiba or the Jaish-e-Mohammed.
India does not have an extradition treaty with Pakistan. The other more serious hurdle: Pakistan simply denies the gangster-terrorist is in the country. Ahead of the 2002 Agra summit, President Pervez Musharraf told the then home minister L.K. Advani: "Mr Advani, let me emphatically tell you that Dawood Ibrahim is not in Pakistan." It is a story Pakistan has steadfastly clung to even as India has continued to bomb the Pakistani side with most-wanted lists every time the two sides meet.
India has been unable to apply sufficient political pressure on Pakistan to deport Dawood. The closest it came to doing this was between 2003 and 2004 when Advani took up Dawood's case with the US. The US department of treasury designated him a 'Specially-Designated Global Terrorist' under an executive order that would freeze assets belonging to him within the US and prohibit transactions with US nationals. For a while, it appeared as if Pakistan would finally concede to Dawood's presence, but when political pressure from India slipped, it went back to denial mode. Since then, Dawood has used his underworld network to facilitate terror operations in India and expand his presence in the fake Indian currency business and hawala transactions for terrorist outfits.
Experts say there is a case for Dawood to be put in a special category of individuals threatening national security. "The US went after Osama bin Laden not only because he masterminded the 9/11 attacks but also because he was a clear and present danger to them," says former director Intelligence Bureau, Ajit Doval.
With all other options to get Dawood fading, legal experts say India needs to get the US to apply pressure on Pakistan to deport him. "The US was the first to declare Dawood a global terrorist, India should now ask the US to pressure Pakistan into not sheltering him," says Ujjwal Nikam, special public prosecutor in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case.
In 2006, 100 of the 129 accused in the Mumbai bombings were found guilty and convicted by the special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court. It is the longest running trial in India's history. Indian investigators admit that there has been no investigation that conclusively links Dawood to the 1993 blasts. The sole thread that connects Dawood to the blasts is a confession made before the police by one of his lieutenants who saw him, Tiger Memon and three unknown Pakistani nationals hatch the blast conspiracy. "Even if we do bring Dawood back, can we convict him in the 1993 blasts case? All we have is a single confession made before the police which in inadmissible in court," says former CBI director Joginder Singh.
The Sultan doesn't Live Here Any More
The Interpol red corner notice for Dawood Ibrahim lists two addresses for him in Karachi. House No. 37 in 30th Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and 'White House', near the Saudi mosque in the city's tony Clifton Road locality. Both are some five kilometres apart. House No. 37 is a sprawling single-storey mansion now occupied by an engineer, Malik Bostan. A voice tells me this in flawless Urdu over a gate-mounted intercom. So I set off for Clifton which is less than two kilometres away from the naval airbase, pns Mehran, which was attacked by militants a few days ago. One of India's most wanted fugitives lives in a complex of five tightly packed bungalows set in an acre of prime real estate in Karachi. It is also less than 500 metres from the tomb of a revered saint, Shah Abdullah Ghazi.
The streets in Clifton are a far cry from the chaos of Karachi. They are clean, immaculately maintained and there are few people to be seen. Also missing are the city's ubiquitous yellow and green auto-rickshaws. Land Cruisers and S-Class Mercedes cars swish in and out of large gates. Only a few houses have numbers. Even the securitymen hide behind the gates and have to be buzzed by intercom. Very clearly, this is a place you go to only if you are a resident or have been invited. A bungalow here costs upwards of Rs 10 crore. Most residents are either retired navy or air force brass or billionaires whose industries figure prominently on the Karachi stock exchange.
The 'White House' is a complex of five single-storey bungalows set behind tall coconut trees. Two white buildings flank what seems to be the main dwelling, a dust brown single-storey mansion numbered 105/II. There is another bungalow at the rear. All the windows are sealed shut. The gate has a cctv camera. The walls are seven feet high but there are no high barbed-wire topped walls like the ones at the Osama bin Laden compound in Abbottabad. Apparently for good reason. The residents are state guests. Photography is prohibited, but there are no signboards. I discover why. As we take pictures of the bungalows, a man wearing a shalwar appears almost out of nowhere. "Who are you? What are you doing here? This isn't a tourist spot," he shouts in Urdu. He doesn't reveal his identity, police or military, but has security establishment written all over his clean-shaven face. He grabs my digital camera and shoos my taxi away. A few minutes later, he tosses the camera towards me. The memory card has been expertly removed. It turns out he is one of a dozen security personnel who guard the houses round the clock.
No one will tell you Dawood or Sultan Shah (his nom de guerre in close circles) lives here. Conversations are furtive, names are concealed. "If you want information about Dawood, then I'm not your man," says Muhammad Shakeel, a retired officer of the Pakistan Air Force. The response is the same from most people. Dawood is He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Probably because he has another name, Sultan Shah. A businessman who enjoys the patronage of the establishment.
He has an estimated net worth of $15 billion with investments in the shipping industry, airline sector and garment factories. His business interests are spread across Karachi, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Germany, the UK, France, and several countries in Africa. The Dawood group is well-entrenched in Singapore and Malaysia with investments in real estate and shipping.
Pakistani authorities, however, deny any knowledge of his whereabouts. A source believes he may actually be living in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan. A retired deputy inspector general of the Karachi police advised this correspondent to look overseas. "Dawood and the other terrorists wanted by India do not live in Pakistan. Look for them in South Asia, Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong," the officer says during a meeting in another part of Karachi.
However, in the course of the off-record conversation, he admits to personally supervising security arrangements for Dawood's daughter's wedding with Javed Miandad's son. "I was told by the police brass to make foolproof security arrangements for the event. The five day event was attended by the who's who of Pakistan-businessmen, politicians and army officials," he says. Another sign of how deep his roots run in his adopted country.
Does India have might to launch Abbottabad-like strike to get Dawood Ibrahim?
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