US dubs Indian criminal ‘terrorist’
The United States has branded India’s most wanted criminal as a global “terrorist” and linked him to Pakistan and al-Qaida.
US Treasury Department backed India’s claim that Dawood Ibrahim – the underworld don accused of masterminding the Mumbai blasts in 1993 that killed 260 people – was hiding in Pakistan.
Contradicting denials by Pakistan, the department said Dawood was living in the Pakistani port city of Karachi and also possessed a Pakistani passport.
The department has now ordered a freeze on his assets worldwide and posted Dawood’s Karachi address and Pakistani passport details on its website.
“Dawood Ibrahim, an Indian crime lord, has found common cause with al Qaida, sharing his smuggling routes with the terror syndicate and funding attacks by Islamist extremists aimed at destabilizing the Indian government,” the department statement said.
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“Ibrahim’s syndicate has consistently aimed to destabilise the Indian government through inciting riots, acts of terrorism and civil disobedience” US Treasury Department |
The US also said Dawood financed Pakistan-based Kashmiri separatist Lashkar-e-Taiba, one of the two groups that India blames for the attack on its parliament in December 2001.
“Ibrahim’s syndicate has consistently aimed to destabilise the Indian government through inciting riots, acts of terrorism and civil disobedience,” the department said.
The department also said that “for the Ibrahim syndicate, the business of terrorism forms part of their larger criminal enterprise, which must be dismantled.”