Trail to Pakistan: US once again in hot pursuit of Dawood Ibrahim

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<strong>Where is Dawood Ibrahim, the undesignated terrorist and India’s most wanted accused of the Bombay1993 blasts? This is an open secret that 69-year-old Dawood Ibrahim and his family has been living in Pakistan with many aliases under the strict protection of the Pakistani army and operating and managing his illegal empire. His daughter is married to the Pakistani cricketer Javed Miandad’s son and both are living with Dawood.</strong></p>
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"It's a very old story and everybody knows that Seth (his underworld alias) is in Karachi. Bhai is in very safe hands there,” one senior journalist of Karachi had told me.</p>
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This may be the old story but India’s most-wanted fugitive Dawood keeps appearing in headlines. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the US and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents asked Pakistani gold trader Muhammad Asif Hafeez to help them with information for a breakthrough on India’s most wanted Dawood Ibrahim, according to court papers of London High Court.</p>
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According to the Pakistani newspaper, <em>The News</em>, in the papers filed before the UK High Court of Justice, Hafeez’s lawyers claimed that the American agents asked the Pakistani gold trader to provide information on underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.</p>
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Muhammad Asif Hafeez’s lawyers have claimed in papers filed before the UK High Court of Justice that American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents, who met Asif Hafeez in Dubai between 2014 to 2017, asked him about Dawood Ibrahim, Mumbai bombings of 1993, Tora Bora, the Taliban, Karachi businessman Jabir Motiwala and Ibrahim’s current location.</p>
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At present the gold smuggler also known as ‘sultan’ , Muhammad Asif Hafeez is now in a British jail. The UK authorities say they arrested Asif Hafeez on 25 August 2017 on the US request of extradition for charges related to import and preparation of Class A drugs. Asif Hafeez has appealed at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and awaits a decision on the US extradition demand from the UK government.</p>
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According to his lawyers, Asif Hafeez told US agents he knew nothing about the Taliban and Afghanistan but confirmed knowing Dawood Ibrahim as both of them were in gold trading in Dubai at one stage and used to watch cricket and sat in adjoining boxes but lost contact after late 90s when Dawood left Dubai for good.</p>
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“I further confirmed that whilst Dawood Ibrahim was in Dubai, he used to sit in the front row of Bollywood performances and was well-known in the industry. In fact, I recall that before any performance started, the performers would ask him 'ijazzat hai?' which means 'do we have permission to begin?” Hafiz told the agents.</p>
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The Pakistani national, according to the legal papers, was asked if he knew whether Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Dawood Ibrahim had any connections. When asked about Dawood’s current whereabouts, Asif Hafeez told the US agents that he didn’t know where Dawood Ibrahim currently was.</p>
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The DEA agents also enquired about Jabir Motiwala, who is also referred to as Jabir Moti or Jabir Siddiq. To this, Hafeez reportedly said that he just knew that Jabir Siddiq was a stockbroker, who worked in the stock exchange in Karachi.</p>
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Zabir, a 53-year-old Pakistani citizen, was described in the High Court of London as the top lieutenant of Dawood Ibrahim’s ‘D Company’ worldwide criminal network. He is considered to be Dawood Ibrahim’s right hand. He manages Underworld Dawn’s investments in the UK, UAE and worldwide. Jabir was arrested by the British police in August 2018 at the Hilton Hotel in London exactly a year after the arrest of Asif Hafeez in August 2017 from the same area of West London.</p>
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Interestingly, India has been telling the world that Dawood Ibrahim and his brothers and henchmen are in Pakistan and residing in another White House in Karachi under the heavy security of Pakistan’s ISI.</p>
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Last year, Pakistan ended up admitting that Dawood Ibrahim, India's most-wanted mobster since 1994 and prime accused in the 1993 Bombay bombings, lives in Karachi's White House. Pakistan had until now spent years denying that it shelters the D-Company chief, with a reward of $25 million over his head and wanted on charges of terrorism, murder, extortion, targeted killing, drug trafficking, and various other cases. The list, according to Pakistani authorities, mentions Dawood Ibrahim's address as "White House, Near Saudi Mosque, Clifton" in Karachi, Pakistan. It also lists several other properties for the mobster and drug dealer, including one "House Nu 37 – 30th Street – defence, Housing Authority, Karachi" and "Palatial bungalow in the hilly area of Noorabad in Karachi". But later,  Pakistan denied his presence on its soil.</p>
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