Nailing A Lie

The U.S. Treasury Department announcement on October 16, 2003, designatingDawood Ibrahim as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order13224, has meant that he now joins Osama bin Laden and 320 others whohold a similar distinction.

Dawood Ibrahim alias Sheikh Dawood Hassan, an Indian Mafia don currentlylocated in Pakistan, is an accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case inwhich at least 257 persons lost their lives. The designation freezes any assetsbelonging to Dawood within the U.S. and prohibits transactions with U.S.nationals.

The U.S. is also shortly expected to request that the United Nations (UN) puthim on its list of terrorists as well. A UN listing will require that all itsmember-states take similar action, and it is this aspect that is bound togenerate attention in the immediate future, since his fugitive status inPakistan has been widely reported, including by some sections of the Pakistanimedia. The designation also brings to light the enormous challenge ofconfronting the intricate and global web of organized crime and Islamist terror.

On October 14, two days before Dawood's designation as a Global Terrorist, theU.S. Treasury Department also put the Pakistan-based Al Akhtar TrustInternational on the same list. The Al Akhtar Trust is accused of being involvedin financing and supporting a network of international Islamist terroristgroups, including the Al Qaeda, raising money for Islamist extremistsattempting to infiltrate into Iraq, and maintaining links with an individualalleged to have been involved in the abduction and murder of Wall Street Journalreporter Daniel Pearl.

The trust, established in year 2000, has offices in Pakistan, Pakistanoccupied Kashmir (PoK) and Afghanistan. The State Bank of Pakistan had frozenthe bank accounts of the trust in May 2003. The US administration reportedlybelieves that the trust is closely linked to the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

A fact sheet issued with the October 16 notification said that Dawood'ssyndicate is involved in large-scale shipments of narcotics in the U.K. andWestern Europe. Further, his syndicate's smuggling routes from South Asia, theMiddle East and Africa are shared with bin Laden and the Al Qaeda.

The fact sheet notes: "Successful routes established over recent yearsby Ibrahim's syndicate have been subsequently utilized by bin Laden. A financialarrangement was reportedly brokered to facilitate the latter's usage of theseroutes. In the late 1990's, Ibrahim traveled in Afghanistan under the protectionof the Taliban." Citing his Pakistani passport number (G869537), the U.S.notification further states, "information, from as recent as Fall 2002,indicates that Ibrahim has financially supported Islamic militant groups workingagainst India, such as Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT). For example, thisinformation indicates that Ibrahim has been helping finance increasing attacksin Gujarat by LeT."

While the U.S. fact sheet further validates the now internationally held opinionthat the 'footprint' of every major act of international Islamist terrorisminvariably passes through Pakistan, it also illustrates Pakistan's deceptionregarding Dawood and indeed, several other fugitives who find safe haven on itssoil. Pakistan has been consistent in its denial of links with Dawood, andPresident Pervez Musharraf had himself stated in no uncertain terms to IndianHome Minister L.K. Advani during his visit to India during July 2001 that "DawoodIbrahim is not in Pakistan".

The citing of his Pakistani passport by the United States indicates officialPakistani complicity, something that India has consistently maintained since the1993 Mumbai blasts. The fact that Dawood Ibrahim has been holed up in Pakistanhas also been corroborated by the Pakistani media. The Pakistani magazine, TheHerald, after a bomb explosion on September 19, 2003, at the tenth floor ofa high-rise commercial complex in Karachi, noted that the business centre -Kawish Crown Plaza - was, according to the Inspector General of the Sindh Police(IGP) "ostensibly owned by Ahmed Jamal but actually belonged to DawoodIbrahim."

"The IGP's statement was backed the same day by the de facto Sindh HomeMinister, Aftab Sheikh, who told reporters that the Mumbai mafioso had a'network from Mumbai to Karachi and was working in both countries'," thereport added. Much earlier in September 2001, the Karachi-based Newsline,in its report "Karachi's Gang Wars", had recorded,

"Karachi's two rival underworld gangs, both working for the notorious Mumbai don, Dawood Ibrahim, are now settling their scores on the streets of Karachi. Dawood Ibrahim and his team, Mumbai's notorious underworld clan including his right hand man Chota Shakeel and Jamal Memon, are on India's most wanted list for a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai and other criminal activities. After the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts, the gang have made Karachi their new home and base of operations. Living under fake names and IDs, and provided protection by Government agencies, they have built up their underworld empire in Karachi employing local talent like Shoaib and Bholoo."

Evidently, Pakistan's emergence as a 'frontline state' in the war againstterrorism is yet to produce the anticipated changes in terms of internal reform,the containment of terrorist groups, and the fulfillment of various promisesmade by President Musharraf in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in USA.

The expected UN listing on Dawood would mean that Pakistan and Gulf countriessuch as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would also be required to initiate actionagainst his network. The UAE has been the hub of the Dawood syndicate's criminalenterprises, with settled operations in places like Dubai for well over adecade.

"We are calling on the international community to stop the flow of dirtymoney that kills. For the Ibrahim syndicate, the business of terrorism formspart of their larger criminal enterprise, which must be dismantled," saidJuan Zarate, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and FinancialCrimes, in a statement accompanying the notification. Past experience, however,has shown that such appeals have not produced any significant action.

Even the UN Security Council Resolution 1373, which proclaims that"…all states should prevent and suppress the financing of terrorism, aswell as criminalize the wilful provision or collection of funds for suchacts," has largely gone unheeded.

Pakistan's lie may have been nailed, but - given its past record of inactionagainst other groups listed as terrorist entities - it remains improbable thatthis will provoke effective action against the Dawood gang, which has long beenregarded as a critical asset by the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in itscovert war of attrition against India.

Kanchan Lakshman is Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management;Assistant Editor, Faultlines: Writings on Conflict & Resolution,Courtesy: the South Asia Intelligence Review of the South Asia TerrorismPortal