Dawood Ibrahim in Pak: Shinde

Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Tuesday told the Lok Sabha that the country’s most-wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim was in Pakistan and Islamabad was being consistently pressed into sending the don back to India.

Shinde’s comment came weeks after former Pakistani foreign secretary Shahryar Khan stated in London that Dawood Ibrahim was in Pakistan, but was “chased out”. Khan, a special envoy of Pakistani Prime Minister M Nawaz Sharif for talks with India, however, backtracked within hours and said that he had no information about Ibrahim.

The home minister told the Lok Sabha that when former Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik had come to India, he was specifically told about New Delhi’s conviction that Ibrahim was living in Pakistan. He had specifically told Malik that Pakistan must handover Ibrahim to India.

He added that New Delhi had asked Islamabad to bring Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed to justice for his role in plotting the terrorist attacks in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. Ibrahim is wanted in India for his alleged role in the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai.

The US Treasury Department designated Ibrahim as a global terrorist in 2003, claiming that he had “found common cause with Al Qaeda” and that he not only shared his smuggling routes with the terror syndicate, but also funded attacks by extremists aimed at destabilizing the Government of India.

“We are pressing the Pakistan government on this issue. We suspect that Dawood Ibrahim is in Pakistan. He should be handed over to India,” Shinde told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

The home minister’s remarks came after the Lok Sabha witnessed a heated exchange between the Opposition and Treasury Bench over the Union Government’s policy to curb terrorism.

In response to a supplementary question by BJP member Ananth Kumar, the home minister said that he had raised the issue during the recent Interpol Conference in Rome and reiterated New Delhi’s position that Pakistan must hand over Ibrahim to India.

“We already mentioned these terrorists that were staying in Karachi or somewhere else in Pakistan and that they have to hand them over to India,” said Shinde.

“I can tell you very clearly that this government has taken all possible steps against terrorism unlike the party in the Opposition,” R P N Singh, Minister of State for Home Affairs, said when Ananth Kumar asked him what the government had done to bring back Ibrahim to stand trial in India.

Ananth Kumar and several other BJP MPs protested Singh’s remark and the House witnessed a brief uproar. Shinde later took it upon himself to speak about New Delhi’s endeavours to press Islamabad to send Ibrahim back to India.