New Delhi : Fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim lives in the posh Clifton residential area of Karachi. This fact known to the Indian authorities has been recently confirmed by a television channel that claimed that it has secured clinching video evidence of his presence in Pakistan, a claim denied by Islamabad for 23 long years.
The channel reportedly used two Pakhtun men, whose “names were withheld for safety reasons,” to identify Dawood’s Karachi-based residence — Bungalow No. D-13 Block 4 Clifton. The location matches with one of the five addresses mentioned by India in its dossier to Pakistan. The channel claimed to have checked all the five addresses of Dawood mentioned in India’s dossier to Pakistan, “Only one of the addresses in Karachi, D-13, Block 4, Clifton, was in a high security zone,” it said.
A day after airing the video, CNN-News18 on Thursday aired audio tapes in which serving police officers talk about the terror don’s movements in the city. These police officers were caught on the tape saying how Dawood is surrounded by his own security men, how he moves around in the neighbourhood and how local police were not allowed at his Clifton bungalow.
It was further revealed that Dawood moves around once or twice a week, that it was very difficult to make out who is inside the cars, and that he was last spotted in the convoy a fortnight earlier.
It is also learnt that Dawood’s security is handled by SMS Security, a firm owned by Javed Chikna, an accomplice who fled from Mumbai to Pakistan after the 1993 blasts.
Interestingly, Dawood has a masjid built inside his sprawling compound and he is also a regular visitor at the nearby shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi, the audio tape has revealed. The senior manager there, Punhun Khan, was caught on tape saying Dawood’s bungalow is right next to the masjid.
At his regular media briefing on Thursdayt, foreign ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said: “The news reports referred to only corroborate the facts that were already available with us. We will continue to pursue this matter and we expect Pakistan to hand over this international terrorist to us.”
He said that the government has already shared details about Dawood, including his possible locations in Pakistan with Islamabad. “Dawood Ibrahim is a UN designated global terrorist and a fugitive from Indian law, at several points of time his details have been shared by the Indian Government with the Government of Pakistan,” he added.
