Author: PNS/Agencies
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 8, 2007
News about elusive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's
appearance are as regular as UFO sighting. Two days after reports that having
undergone plastic surgery to camouflage his identity Dawood was hiding in
Kazakhstan, yet another titillating tale has surfaced in the media.
This time, it is about the arrest of Dawood
along with his trusted lieutenants Chhota Shakeel and Tiger Memon, all wanted
in India in connection with the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and several other
charges. A section of the media reported that Dawood and his henchmen were
picked up from their hideout near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and taken
to a safe-house on the outskirts of the Quetta city, capital of Baluchistan
province.
While the Pakistani media is silent about
the news and major TV channels have ignored it altogether, the Indian media
has gone overboard in claiming and refuting the news. The matter took an interesting
turn after someone claiming to be Chhota Shakeel called the Indian TV channels
and asserted that there had been no crackdown on 'D' company and Dawood was
still at large.
The Pakistan Government also officially debunked
the news of Dawood's arrest.
"Nobody with that name has been arrested
in Pakistan," Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema told mediapersons
in Islamabad.
"We have reason to believe that he is
not in Pakistan," he said, adding that Indian authorities were advised
to scour their own territory for the wanted men.
Last week, the US - which branded Ibrahim
a 'global terrorist' - said his smuggling routes converge with those used
by Al-Qaeda to traffic arms.
The rumour mill was busy all through the day
but security agencies in both India and across the border expressed surprise
over the claims.
Some television channels claimed that Dawood
had been wounded in a shootout in Karachi while others reported that the underworld
don had been detained in Quetta along with his aides Memon and Shakeel.
No security official or hospital in Karachi
had any inkling of any shootout involving Dawood.
"Is he in Karachi," asked a top
security official in Karachi, who dismissed the reports as "rumours".
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.
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 ISI
has provided shelter to the don, a contention vehemently denied by Islamabad.
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.
