Dawood
Ibrahim Living in Islamabad, Undergoing Cosmetic Surgery, say
Indians
By
Arun Rajnath
NEW
DELHI: Iqbal Seth alias Amir Sahib is living in style in the Pakistani
capital city of Islamabad. He has recently acquired three Honda
luxury cars, and according to reports reaching here, is undergoing
cosmetic surgery. Yes! Iqbal Seth alias Amir Sahib is the mythical
Dawood Ibrahim, the Indian Osama bin Laden, wanted desperately
by New Delhi.
Ibrahim, now Iqbal Seth, has already established links in Nepal
with the help of the Pakistani intelligence agency, ISI, and has
appointed one Sartaj Ahmed as his front man. Sartaj was allegedly
seen recently with a Pakistani Embassy official near Tundi Khel
in Kathmandu.
None
less than Deputy Prime Minister of India, Lal Krishna Advani,
recently stated that without extraditing Dawood Ibrahim to India,
we could never expect permanent peace and security in the region.
He further said that Pakistan should soon hand over Dawood Ibrahim
who has assumed a different identity, and lives in Karachi, but
now he has moved to Islamabad. He has also established criminal
links in Nepal with the help of the ISI. Hence, the ISI has opened
a new front against India.
Highly
placed sources told the South Asia Tribune that Dawood’s
infamous accomplice, Chhota Shakeel, also wanted in India, is
now known as Haji Mohammed. Another Dawood associate, Tiger Memon,
has assumed the Muslim name of Ahmed Jamil.
Indian
officials say Dawood Ibrahim’s contacts in ISI include Major
Khaliq and Major Akbar under whose patronage he had been staying
in Karachi carrying a Pakistani passport with the name of Sheikh
Dawood Hasan. After the US declared him a global terrorist, he
is said to have shifted to an ISI safe house in Islamabad.
Dawood Ibrahim is planning to leave Pakistan soon and may enter
a Gulf state, but he is finding it difficult as the US has included
his name in List ‘C’, after declaring him a ‘Global
Terrorist’ in October 2003. This means he is now an associate
of the Al Qaeda.
Indians
believe Dawood Ibrahim is undergoing cosmetic surgery in Islamabad
to change his looks. He is seldom seen moving around but whenever
he does, Iqbal Seth is his cover. His new Honda cars give away
his whereabouts.
The
Indians are not happy. “Pakistan has stretched the right
hand towards India for a handshake, but the left hand is still
holding a revolver to our head. Besides Bangladesh, Pakistan has
opened a new front in Nepal. The ISI is using Dawood Ibrahim for
this purpose, and simultaneously, it is funding several fundamentalist
organizations of Nepal,” said an Indian official.
Dawood
Ibrahim is a regular visitor to Nepal. He was last seen in Kathmandu
in the last week of August 2003. Officials told the South
Asia Tribune that during that visit, Dawood met his front
man Sartaj Ahmed and leaders of some fundamentalist organizations.
Though
Dawood has restricted his international movements, his front man
Sartaj is in constant touch with officials of the Pakistani Embassy.
He was recently spotted near Tundi Khel playground in Kathmandu
with a Pakistani diplomat. Indian official allege that the ISI
has not changed its ways and Dawood Ibrahim and his contacts are
being used against India.
Dawood has big financial stakes in
Nepal. He has made huge investments in a variety of business ventures,
from media, private airlines, hotels, travel agencies to trans-border
smuggling including that of gold.
In Nepal he has built high level
contacts with businessmen, officials, politicians, smugglers,
religious fundamentalists and the Kashmiri Shah family in Kathmandu
(viz. Shamim Shah, owner of M/S Space Tune Network). The late
Mirza Dilshad Beg, an ex-member of parliament of Nepal, was once
an associate of Dawood. He was gunned down in Kathmandu in 1998.
After his death, his son-in-law Sartaj joined Dawood.
Indian
officials are prepared to share even some confidential documents
with journalists on this sensitive issue. One official showed
the South Asia Tribune documents which indicate the ISI
maintains regular contacts with various fundamentalist organizations
of Nepal such as Al Hera Educational Society, Nepal Islamic Sangh,
All Nepal Muslim Ittehad Association, Islamic Mission to Nepal,
Muslim Ekta Sangh, Nepal World Islamic Council, World Assembly
of Muslim Youth of Nepal. All these organizations are known for
their fundamentalist approach.
According to recent reports, a new
Pan Islamic organization, ‘Nepal Muslim Amaraat Society’
has been founded by one Yunus Ansari, with support from the Pakistan-based
fundamentalist elements. The aims and objectives of this organization
include working amongst Muslims in the Terai belt of Nepal. A
meeting was held recently near the Indian border town of Raxaul,
where its office bearers discussed ways and means to unite Muslims
of the Terai region of India under a single banner.
A
substantial amount of the Indian currency was also given to the
Madrassa Sirajul Uloom of Krishnanagar in the district of Kapilvastu,
Nepal, to purchase land close to Indo-Nepal border.The amount
has originally been provided by the Jeddah-based Islamic Development
Bank.
Some
documents showed to this correspondent reveal strategies, geopolitical
and topographical conditions on the Indo-Nepal borders for activities
of the ISI backed elements. The scope of extending plans of the
ISI in North Bengal areas including Darjeeling, Gorkha Hills and
even up to Sikkim with the opening of the Indo-China trade route
via Nathulla-Gangtok is much greater now.
The utilization of the trade routes
for smuggling arms and other clandestine activities cannot be
ruled out. The distance between the Indo-Nepal border, Kakarvitta,
Nepal/Pani Tanki, India, and Indo-China border at Nathulla, Sikkim
is around 200 kms, which is negotiable in six to eight hours by
any light motor vehicle. Indian forces are keeping vigil along
the routes joining Kakarvitta-Panitanki, Indo-Nepal border to
Nathulla, Indo-China border preferably to monitor clandestine
activities.
Officials
told the South Asia Tribune the ISI is targeting Gorkha
officials or retired officials of the Indian Army who belong to
Nepal. The ISI has also succeeded in placing Pakistani citizens,
a few of them ex-Pak army personnel, who have ensconced along
the Indo-Nepal border by marrying local women with the objective
of facilitating ISI activities in Nepal.
Most of this information was divulged
by an alleged ISI agent, Dilshad, who was arrested by the West
Bengal police from Siliguri sometimes back. Dilshad’s reported
task was to collect strategic information regarding Indian forces’
deployment and movement in North Bengal and Sikkim. He had also
passed on the information about the Indian security forces’
operation against terrorist outfits of the North-Eastern region
of India.
Officials say the Government of India
has already cautioned the Nepalese authorities about possible
communal clashes between Muslim organizations and Hindu outfits
viz. ‘Pashupati Sena’ and ‘Shiv Sena of Nepal’
as environment conducive for such clashes is being created.
New
Delhi is learnt to have provided documentary evidence to the Nepalese
authorities on ISI’s alleged involvement in training and
arming the Maoists to continue their rebellious activities against
the monarchy in collaboration with the ultra Left outfits of India.
