Pakistan supports Dawood Ibrahim's businesses: IB

Along with several illegitimate businesses that Dawood Ibrahim operates, he also runs some legitimate ones that the Pakistan government is well aware of. This can happen only with the complete support of the establishment say Intelligence Bureau officials. Vicky Nanjappa reports. 

Home Minister P Chidambaram a few days back had claimed that he was sure that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was in Pakistan. While any child on the street could vouch for this, what's important is not that he is in Pakistan, but the fact that he controls an empire directly linked between India, Pakistan and Dubai.

A dossier of the Intelligence Bureau suggests that Dawood Ibrahim not only lives in comfort at Pakistan, but also continues to run a very lucrative business. Dawood, according to the dossier, has a very large crime syndicate under his control, but the worrying fact is that he has also been running a couple of legitimate businesses that the Pakistan government is well aware of. This can happen only with the complete support of the establishment, Intelligence Bureau officials point out.

The businesses of Dawood have been split up into legitimate and illegitimate ones. While the illegitimate businesses comprise counterfeiting, piracy, drugs, smuggling or arms etc, the legitimate businesses comprise garment trading, stock exchange dealings, cement and oil interests.

There have been a lot of allegations and counter allegations between India and Pakistan regarding Dawood Ibrahim. The dossier on him states clearly that he earns at least 20,000 crore per year through his dealings and at least 40 per cent of the same goes into funding terror related activities. This shows that he is a golden goose for Pakistan and they are not prepared to lose him at any cost.

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Dawood's address from where he operates is known as the White House, near Saudi mosque, Clifton, House No 37, 30th Street, Defence housing authority, Karachi, Pakistan -- an area that comes under the control of the Pakistan army.

He also owns the following the properties in Karachi- A 239, block 13C, Gulshan-e-Iqbal 25, rufi cottage, block 13D Gulshan-e-Iqbal Ahmadi apartments, Gulshan-e-Iqbal Meymar arcade, fourth floor, Gulshan-e-Iqbal C-201 Karachi development scheme, Extension 1A Moin Palace, second floor, Ghazi Dargah, Clifton Khayaban-e-Samsher.

Dawood's control over the Indian market is a big cause for concern. He is the one primarily responsible for piracy in India and runs this racket through a business establishment called Sadaf Trading, which itself is worth over a billion dollars.

He has interests in oil in the Gulf nations, cement industries in Pakistan, garments and silk in China, stock exchange in India. He has also started exporting a brand of tobacco to Russia under the brand name Fire, which is also doing well according to IB reports.

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The money that he has been earning through the above mentioned businesses are mostly parked in India with hawala dealers. A large part of the sum is also kept in benami names in various banks in both India and Pakistan. However, the money that is earned through counterfeiting, narcotics and arms trade is kept in circulation and a large chunk is passed on for terror related operations.

The Inter-Services Intelligence insists that this money is also kept in circulation in other parts of the world and each time he has tried to send money out of Pakistan it has always been through the India-Nepal border. According to security experts, it is one thing to seek the extradition of Dawood Ibrahim, but what is more important is to keep his dealings under check in India.

Dawood's racket could be broken to a great extent if India acts more seriously on his deals in the country, security experts believe. What makes him strong is the kind of money he is able to generate out of the Indian markets, they also point out.

For India to extradite Dawood is a herculean task. Even if there is pressure from the United States of America, Pakistan would go out of its way to guard the man. In the year 2006, he was shifted to Wazirstan by the Pakistan army to avoid any assault by the US troops who have branded him as an international terrorist.

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Dawood also has a safe hide out in Jeddah and has very often moved there. He continues to use two passport H-123259 and G-869537 for all his travel and these were issued to him at Rawalpindi ten years back.

The IB says that his businesses continue to grow with each passing day. He is becoming a headache not only for countries such as India and Nepal, but his drug syndicate has spread across Thailand, Kenya, Malaysia and Singapore. The worry, however, is that these countries not only become transit points for the drug or counterfeit trade.

There is a catch and that is also continues to create newer routes for terror operations. With the Lashkar-e-Tayiba making every effort to go international, they find their biggest help in Dawood and his network.

The Lashkar has been setting up bases in Singapore and Thailand. Most of the times it has been seen that most governments have been lenient in controlling the drug trade and what they do not realise is that they end up creating a route for terror operations as well. The same has happened in India and today the D gang finds an easy route to smuggle arms and also fake currency.

According to the IB, Dawood enjoys a comfort level that even VIPs in Pakistan could be envious of. Going by the interrogation report of Ahmed Khwaja, a Hyderabad based Lashkar operative who has visited Pakistan, the comfort levels of Dawood becomes clear. He goes on to say that he tried to see his house but was unable to due to the big fort like structure. He also said that he was told that Dawood enjoys a 10 layer security ring, which many VIPs too do not have in Pakistan.