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Closing in on India's most
wanted
By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - In the latest turn involving
the saga of India's most-wanted man, Dawood
Ibrahim, the United Nations has placed the
underworld don and alleged mastermind behind the
1993 serial blasts in Mumbai on the wanted list of
individuals having links with al-Qaeda. According
to the fresh list, Dawood figures into UN
resolution 1267, which mandates that all member
states freeze the assets of such individuals and
prevent their entry into or transit through their
territories.
The resolution also asks
member countries to prevent the direct or indirect
supply, sale and transfer of arms and military
equipment to entities belonging to the Taliban or
having links with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.
The UN list has named Dawood as an Indian citizen,
with his place of birth being Ratnagiri in
Maharashtra, and having an Indian passport:
A-333602. However, the world body has failed to
locate his present location, though at one stage
he certainly did reside in Pakistan and made
frequent forays into the Gulf region for business.
In 2003, the US labeled Dawood a "global
terrorist", after which it was expected there
would be added pressure on Pakistan to rein in the
gangster, if it could. The fact sheet on Dawood is
well documented on websites such as that of the US
Department of Treasury:
Dawood, the son of a police
constable, has reigned as one of the pre-eminent
criminals in the Indian underworld for most of
the past two decades. Ibrahim's syndicate has
consistently aimed to destabilize the Indian
government through inciting riots, acts of
terrorism and civil disobedience. He is
currently wanted by India for the March 12,
1993, Bombay Exchange bombings which killed
hundreds of Indians and injured over a thousand
more. Information, from as recent as fall 2002,
indicates that Ibrahim has financially supported
Islamic militant groups working against India,
such as Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT). Ibrahim's
syndicate is involved in large-scale shipments
of narcotics in the United Kingdom and Western
Europe. The syndicates's smuggling routes from
South Asia, the Middle East and Africa are
shared with bin Laden and his terrorist network.
Successful routes established over recent years
by Ibrahim's syndicate have been subsequently
utilized by bin Laden. A financial arrangement
was reportedly brokered to facilitate the
latter's usage of these routes. In the late
1990s, Ibrahim travelled in Afghanistan under
the protection of the Taliban. Not
a week goes by without speculation about Dawood in
the Indian media - that he lives a lavish life in
Karachi, enjoys the hospitality of the top bosses
in Pakistan, has married an Indian Bollywood
actress, is still close to Pakistan's Inter
Service Intelligence (ISI) agency, or has fallen
out of favor. None of this has been confirmed of
late.
Over the course of time, the Dawood
issue has turned into a symbolic tussle of
Pakistan not giving into pressures, pitchforking
the gangster into the realm of India-Pakistan
give-and-take politics. His aura has only grown
bigger with several Bollywood films themed around
his life, including one recent release
appropriately called D, after his D Company
gang. The actor who plays the don said in an
interview that Dawood must be an intelligent man,
having escaped the police dragnet for so long.
India's constant refrain has been that
Pakistan has for long been harboring terrorists,
including Dawood. India has made strong efforts to
convince the US of Pakistan's complicity in
allowing Dawood and others, such as Masood Azhar,
to flourish. But to no avail. Azhar is the founder
of the banned Islamic extremist group
Jaish-e-Mohammed, which is accused of leading
several terror attacks in India. Azhar was
released by India in exchange for the lives of 150
passengers traveling on Indian Airlines flight IC
814 from Kathmandu in Nepal that was hijacked in
December 1999 by Pakistani nationals with links to
the ISI. He continues to live and preach in
Pakistan.
There is some hope now, given
the changing situation in Pakistan. Yet one
question often asked in India is whether the
current dispensation in Pakistan has the
wherewithal to tackle the monster of terrorists,
who is in a big measure its own making. The
current peace process between India and Pakistan
has gained a new momentum, with both sides
committed to making things work. But one line of
thinking is that the fundamentalists and
terrorists in Pakistan are now beyond the control
of President General Pervez Musharraf, even if he
wants to eliminate them or withdraw the support of
the army. Several reports now talk of elaborate
new plans to assassinate Musharraf - two attempts
were made in December 2003.
Terrorists
continue to strike in India, one recent instance
being the bold attempt to kill passengers on the
first India-Pakistan peace bus linking Indian and
Pakistan Kashmir. The future does not portend
well, as was further highlighted by police killing
LeT terrorists who were planning major
assaults in New Delhi last month.
Yet
there is no doubt that the efforts of the state
can go a long way in nabbing terrorists - the
prime example being the arrest of Abu Faraj
al-Libbi of al-Qaeda and countrywide crackdowns on
militant groups. Abu Faraj's arrest follows in
connection with the assassination attempts against
Musharraf.
In India, the recent conviction
of Aftab Ansari is another pointer. Ansari was
handed a death sentence recently by an Indian
court after his terror links were established.
Ansari orchestrated an attack on the American
Center in Kolkata in January 2002 in which five
people were killed and 20 injured. The police have
also traced his e-mail records to some of the
perpetrators of the September 11, 2001, attack on
the World Trade Center in New York. Justice has
finally caught up with Ansari, though he still has
the right to appeal to a higher court.
The
Ansari and Abu Faraj cases bring into focus the
fact that when a state turns against a terrorist
network it makes the task of nabbing the militants
that much easier. The arrest of Ansari came about
due to the cooperation of the United Arab
Emirates, when the Dubai police who nabbed him in
January 2003 extradited him to India following the
Kolkata attack. There are reports that suggest
Ansari was looking for Pakistan's protection,
which is borne out by the fact that the gangster
was caught in Dubai trying to escape into
Pakistan. As has been reported in Asia Times
Online, Abu Faraj had been on the run for some
time, trying to escape US/Pakistan intelligence
agencies closing in on him.
Several
commentators have talked about the changing face
of terrorists and terrorism across the world. They
do not rely on state support for their activities
if it is not forthcoming; instead, they establish
direct links with the perpetrators of crime and
follow personal agendas of vengeance. They justify
their actions through a warped definition of
jihad, which also involves an accumulation of
considerable personal wealth.
However, the
examples made with Abu Faraj and Aftab Ansari do
rekindle hope that more will be in the net as
well.
Siddharth Srivastava is a
New Delhi-based journalist.
(Copyright
2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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