Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, the son of a Mumbai police constable, has been made additional director-general of Pakistan's espionage agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in an honorary capacity.
“This is in recognition of the extensive services he has rendered to the ISI over the past several decades," sources in the intelligence community said.
Dawood (68) fled to Dubai in the late '80s where he was cultivated by the ISI and helped the spy agency execute the deadly serial bomb blasts of Mumbai on March 12, 1993, after which he shifted base to Karachi where he was provided protection by the ISI. Since, he has been working for terror outfits of Pakistan and their allies across the world.
A global terrorist
He has already been designated a global terrorist by the United Nations and the U.S. treasury department. He was associated with Al Qaida, Osama Bin Laden and Taliban. He has been using the terror network to facilitate his massive empire of drug smuggling. Part of the profits generated through the sale of drugs is, in turn, used to finance terror activities under the close guidance of the ISI.
The U.S. Treasury Department has already designated Dawood as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224.”
According to the U.S. administration, Dawood “has used his position as one of the most prominent criminals of the Indian underworld for most of the past two decades to support Al-Qaida and related groups. In particular, his criminal syndicate has been involved in large-scale shipments of narcotics, and has shared its smuggling routes from South Asia, the Middle East and Africa with Usama bin Laden (deceased) and his terrorist network. A financial arrangement was brokered to facilitate their usage of these routes. In the late 1990s, Kaskar traveled to Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban.”
Drug smuggling across borders
Sources said Dawood is closely working with the ISI in drug smuggling across borders. He is on first name terms with senior army generals of Pakistan and is under 24 hour armed protection of the special forces of the Pak army. His right hand man Chhota Shakeel now handles much of his business in real estate, Bollywood and other areas while his brother Anees Ibrahim oversees business operations in the Gulf and the Middle East. Dawood's network in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and other cities is intact and he allows the ISI to use it to conduct espionage activities in different parts of India. Many builders of Mumbai are known to go to Pakistan via Dubai or Kathmandu on the basis of Pakistani passports provided to them by Shakeel. Recently, D Company tried to facilitate the takeover of Hotel Marine Plaza on Marine Drive by his men. Recently, the gang also took over a 28-acre land parcel in Wadala through a benami builder based out of Dadar. Incidentally, the Chinese have also started investing heavily in Mumbai's real estate industry and have tied up with certain persons with links to the D company.
