Dawood Ibrahim, one of India’s most-wanted men for masterminding the 1993 blasts in Mumbai in which 300 people were killed, was shifted somewhere near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border about a fortnight ago, a top official in the Indian home ministry claimed on Friday.
“He was in Karachi about 15 days ago, but has since been shifted to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region,” the official said.
Further, the official from the home ministry noted, “There are at least five-six locations that we have identified, where he is shifted on a regular basis.”
“He is never kept at one location for more than a month,” the official added.
The official said that Ibrahim also travelled frequently outside of Pakistan, especially to Central Asian countries.
Earlier, on May 5, Minister of State for Home, Haribhai Chaudhry told parliament that Ibrahim not been located so far, contradicting the Indian government’s own firmly-held position that he is in Pakistan.
The Indian government has maintained for some time now that Dawood is being sheltered in Pakistan. It has also handed over several files on Dawood to Pakistan, including details about his locations in Pakistan.
Chaudhry’s statement is far from what his boss, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, had said in December. “We have repeatedly asked Pakistan to hand over Dawood Ibrahim. Let’s be patient; action will be taken soon,” Singh had said after a western intelligence agency claimed that it had recorded a telephone conversation involving Dawood and traced his location to Karachi.
