While all attention is focused on Osama bin Laden and his cohorts allegedly cornered in western Pakistan, in India there is an equal amount of interest in the one man who is wanted just as desperately - Dawood Ibrahim.
Reports quoting intelligence sources and independently confirmed by home ministry officials say that India's most wanted criminal - thought to be hiding in Pakistan - is facing the heat at the instance of none less than Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf. The reports say that Dawood's personal security guards, derived from the cream of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, have been removed. Ibrahim is now said to be on the run, and some reports say that he has shaved his mustache and is contemplating plastic surgery to take on a new identity and passport.
| If Pakistan's pulled Dawood's security detail, then he may well be nabbed or killed soon. My guess would be the latter, since he knows way too much about what all Pakistan's military-intel boys been involved in. |
Following last week's foreign-secretary-level India-Pakistan talks, which ended with a clear time-frame and a positive roadmap for future dialogue, this crackdown on Dawood is music to India's ears. Such is the keenness in India that Pakistan nab Dawood that officials say that this one step by the Pakistan establishment could propel Indo-Pak relations to levels that have never been witnessed since the time of partition in 1947, during which the two countries have fought three wars and one near-war at Kargil in 1999.
| That would be nice, since then there'd be no need for Pakistan to retain the services of the jihadi groups. I also think that it's extremely over-optimistic. |
The hunt for Dawood is taking place following Pakistan's realization that flushing out terrorists and jihadi elements has become a necessity for its own survival.
| Looks like the assassination attempts may have been Perv's version of the road to Damascus after all ... |
But what might be more than a coincidence is that Pakistan's sudden willingness to flush out Dawood comes amid reports in the Indian media that a timely tip-off by the Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) helped foil a third assassination plot against Musharraf. Two abortive attempts have been reported in the past few months. There is, however, no doubt in anyone's mind that Dawood is indisputably the number one criminal wanted by India, and what has rankled is that he has for long used Pakistan as a base.
"If Dawood is nabbed, it will be the biggest step Pakistan undertakes to curb cross-border terrorism on the eastern side of the border," said an official with the Foreign Ministry. India Defense Minister George Fernandes has already hinted that India has some information about the Pakistan army dismantling terror camps and infiltration along the India-Pakistan border.
| That'd be really good news, if true. Shutting down the jihadi infrastructure in Pakland is probably best done on an incremental level starting with the nastiest. But then again, if India and Pakistan come to an understanding on Kashmir there'd be no real need for Pakistan to have all those jihadis. This is also a good lesson for those nations that want to get out of the terror business, if anybody's paying attention. Prince Nayef? |
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