From Yoshita Singh

United Nations:India’s consistent stand that Dawood Ibrahim is based in Pakistan has got a virtual endorsement from the UN which has obviously confirmed six addresses of the underworld don in that country.

The listing of the UN Security Council’s ISIL and Al- Qaida Sanctions Committee also includes information about Dawood’s various passports, including those issued in Pakistan.

India, in a dossier, had cited nine addresses in Pakistan as those frequented by Dawood of which the UN Security Council’s ISIL and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee has removed three, finding those incorrect.

The Committee, which amended its entry yesterday concerning Dawood, a UN-designated terrorist, made no changes with regard to six addresses provided by India.

One of the three addresses which have been dropped by the Committee from its list was found similar to that of a residence of Islamabad’s envoy to the UN Maleeha Lodhi.

“On 22 August 2016, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999), 1989 (2011) and 2253 (2015) enacted the amendments specified with underline and strikethrough in the entry” concerning Dawood on its ISIL (Da esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo, it said.

It did not amend Dawood’s addresses mentioned in the listing — “Karachi, Pakistan (White House, Near Saudi Mosque, Clifton)”, “House Nu 37 – 30th Street – defence, Housing Authority, Karachi, Pakistan” and “Palatial bungalow in the hilly area of Noorabad in Karachi”.

The addresses were included in a dossier prepared by India in August last year that had listed nine residences in Pakistan of the mastermind of 1993 Mumbai serial blasts as evidence to show that he is holed up in Pakistan.

In the amendment, the Committee has stricken through the address “Main Property at Margalla Raod F- 6/2 Street no.22, House No.07, Islamabad number 29 in Karachi. This address was later found to be similar to that of a residence belonging to Lodhi.”

When asked about the amendment, a top Indian official here told PTI that one address of Dawood in the listing entry was incorrect. The address was “of Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, and not Dawood Ibrahim”, the sources said.

“The amendment also strikes through other addresses “8th Floor of Mehran Square, near Pardesi House-3, Talwar Area, Clifton, Karachi, Pakistan” and “6/A Kjauabam Tanzeem, Phase-5, Defence Housing Araea, Karachi, Pakistan.”

The listing says Dawood has a Passport number A717288 issued on August 18, 1985 in Dubai and a Pakistani number G866537 issued on August 12, 1991 in Rawalpindi but adds the term “misuse” for these two passports.

He also has Passport number C-267185 issued in Karachi in July 1996, Passport number H-123259 issued in Rawalpindi in July 2001 and Passport number G-869537 issued in Rawalpindi, according to the listing.

Pakistan has consistently denied that Dawood is living in that country after he fled from the law in India.

Dawood was listed on November 3, 2003 and the entry has been amended in March and July 2006, July 2007 and March 2010.

Being a UN designated terrorist, he is subject to assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo.

The information about the residences in Pakistan, including one bought near the house of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of late former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, in Karachi two years ago is contained in the dossier that had been prepared to be handed over to Pakistan’s National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz during talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval, which were later cancelled.

“Dawood is known to frequently change his locations and addresses in Pakistan. He has amassed immense property in Pakistan and moves under the protection of Pakistani agencies,” the dossier had said.

Another amendment enacted by the Committee concerns details of his family.

The information “Father’s name is Sheikh Ibrahim Ali Kaskar, mother’s name is Amina Bi, wife’s name is Mehjabeen Shaikh” has been underlined in the listing.

The amendment further struck out “Bombai” as his place of birth, noting instead that it is “Kher, Ratnagiri in Maharashtra”.

It has added “Sheikh Farooqi, Bada Seth, Bada Bhai, Iqbal Bhai, Mucchad and Haji Sahab” as his “low quality” aliases.

Dawood is wanted in India for the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in which 257 people were killed and nearly a thousand injured. He is also accused of masterminding other terror attacks and of money laundering and extortion.

PTI