Conflicting reports on the detention of global terrorist and Mumbai underworld gangster Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan kept rumour mills busy Tuesday but security agencies in both India and across the border expressed surprise over the claims.
Some Indian television channels claimed that Dawood, wanted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, had been wounded in a shootout in Karachi while others reported that the gangster had been detained in Quetta along with his aides Tiger Memon and Chhota Shakeel. No security official or hospital in Karachi had any inkling of any shootout involving Dawood, who was designated as a global terrorist by the US recently.
"Is he in Karachi," asked a top security official in Karachi, who dismissed the reports as "rumours". No official was willing to say anything on record. Another official in Karachi pointed out that with President Pervez Musharraf being in town, it was hard to believe that a shootout had taken place at a four-star hotel in the port city's busiest areas.
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Pakistan's former Test cricket captain Javed Miandad, whose son is married to Dawood's daughter, refused to comment on the reports. India has been claiming that Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence has provided shelter to don, a contention vehemently denied by Islamabad.
Unlike Indian television channels, no Pakistani channel had any story about Dawood being detained or wounded. Indian security agencies said they were verifying the reports regarding Dawood and there was no credible information with them to suggest that he has been taken into custody.
The US has already asked Pakistan to hand over Dawood and his aides for their alleged links to al Qaeda.