NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday rejected Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik’s claim that the designated global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim was not in his country, insisting that Pakistan needed to disclose the whereabouts of the don who has houses in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.”If the minister ( Rehman Malik) is so sure that Dawood is not in Pakistan, he should tell us where is he…. According to our information, Dawood is in Pakistan,” home secretary Gopal K Pillai said in a sharp riposte to Malik’s assertion, in an interview to an Indian TV channel, that Dawood was not lodged in the neighbouring country.Malik made light of Dawood’s daughter being married to former Pakistan cricketer Javed Miandad’s son, as he shrugged off New Delhi’s charge that the gang lord, also wanted for the 1993 serial bomb attacks in Mumbai, had been sheltered by Pakistan as part of its anti-India agenda. “I think marrying a lady in Pakistan does not give a certificate that Dawood is in Pakistan. But if you have any information, we will happy to have a look into it. If we get hold of him, naturally we will look into it. But as far as our information is concerned he is not here.”
The disclaimer failed to wash with India’s home secretary. Asked to comment on Malik’s claim, Pillai asserted that India’s most wanted criminal has houses in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. “We would welcome any more information (from Pakistan about Dawood),” he told reporters.New Delhi has on a number of occasions shared information with Islamabad on Dawood’s houses, with the latest being passed on during the home secretary-level talks between the two countries here in March. But Pakistan has always remained in the denial mode.An Interpol Red Corner Notice (RCN), pending against Dawood since 1993, has even clearly mentioned the don’s address in Karachi’s Clifton area. Indian intelligence agencies suspect that Dawood is hiding there in one of the safe-houses of the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI.Asked about Pakistan’s response to India’s demand for voice samples of the 26/11 perpetrators, Malik said: “The lower court has rejected the plea and now we have moved to high court. This shows our interest to give the voice sample…..I assure Chidambaram (Indian home minister) and people of India that we are at it but we cannot go beyond law. We will use every possible legal means to get it.” – TOI
