Pakistan strengthens Dawood Ibrahim security

Intelligence reports say Pakistan has increased security around India’s most wanted man, Dawood Ibrahim, after the arrest of mafia don and former Dawood aide Chhota Rajan in Bali, Indonesia.

The Pakistani move comes while Indian sleuths are camping in Bali and will question Rajan about his Mumbai underworld connections and earlier association with Dawood, whom the Indian agencies have not been able to lay hands on. The NDA government has assured it will leave no stone unturned to bring Dawood back to India to face trial.

Pakistan’s ISI is learnt to have strengthened his security detail in the wake of the Chhota Rajan developments. Top sources said there is concern within Pakistan, particularly in the ISI, that Rajan may now be used by the Indian agencies to apprehend Dawood.

Nailing Pakistan’s lie, Rajan, while being taken for questioning in Bali earlier on Monday, told reporters that Dawood is in Pakistan under ISI protection. Islamabad so far has denied Dawood’s presence on Pakistani soil.

There has been speculation about whether Rajan was caught under a secret deal to help the Indian agencies reach Dawood. While there is no corroboration of this speculation, it appears to have not gone unnoticed by Pakistan which has acted promptly to “secure Dawood”.

According to the reports, special commandos of the Pakistan Army have been deployed at Dawood’s residences in Karachi and Islamabad where he has been living for more than two decades after the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts. The Pakistan Army commandos were deployed to protect Dawood after the arrest of Chhota Rajan in Bali on October 25, sources said, quoting the latest intelligence reports.

Dawood has been given shelter by the Pakistani establishment which has allowed him to run his businesses from that country despite successive Indian governments sharing detailed dossiers on him detailing his role in the 1993 blasts.

Dawood and Rajan had fallen out, sources said, citing this as the reason for concern in Pakistan that Rajan may now be used by the Indian agencies to catch Dawood.

India has officially maintained that Dawood, wanted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, has bases in Karachi and Islamabad.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh had said Dawood keeps changing his location but lives permanently in Pakistan. Mr Singh had also said in Parliament that the government would leave no stone unturned to bring back Dawood. “The Indian government is committed to bringing back Dawood,” he had said.

Meanwhile, Rajan, a close confidant of Dawood who became his rival, has said he is not afraid of Dawood. In 2000, there was an attempt on Rajan’s life when Dawood’s men tracked him down to a Bangkok hotel, but he managed a dramatic escape.