'Impossible to get access to Dawood in Karachi'

Pakistan has denied reports that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim is running his terror operations from Karachi. But terrorists arrested by Indian intelligence agencies have repeatedly admitted that India's most wanted man has taken refuge in Pakistan, with active assistance from the Inter Services Intelligence.

Ahmed Khwaja, the Lashkar-e-Tayiba militant in the custody of the Hyderabad police, recently revealed that Dawood is protected by an impenetrable, multilayered security system in Karachi, sources told rediff.com.

Khwaja told interrogators that Ibrahim's aides had pointed out his residence in the Pakistani city.

"I was told that it is impossible to get in there; scores of army personnel guard that place. He lives on the outskirts of Karachi and the entire area looks like a fortress with various security personnel in uniform," Khawaja told the investigators. 

Sources added that though Khwaja didn't reveal too much information about Dawood's operations in Pakistan, he did admit that the mastermind of the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai was the biggest financier of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. During his visit to Karachi, Khwaja told interrogators, many of his contacts told him that Dawood was an important person for the Pakistani establishment.

According to IB officials, Dawood's criminal network is involved in various illegal activities including drug trade and fake currency rackets. His real estate business itself is worth several thousand crores and he hands over 40 per cent of his profits from the drug trade to the ISI, they said.

Of the Rs 1,800 crore that the ISI spends in sponsoring terrorism in India, nearly Rs 1,000 crore is provided by Dawood, say IB sources.

New Delhi has repeatedly requested Pakistan to hand over Dawood to Indian authorities, but Islamabad has maintained that the dreaded don was not hiding in Pakistan.