Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, India’s Most Wanted criminal, is in news again. In last 48 hours, there has been a strong buzz around the health of the D-Company boss. Is Dawood Ibrahim alive or dead? Has he been poisoned? Is he recovering at a Karachi hospital? All these questions give a strong sense of Deja vu! Because in the last 10 years, Dawood has died at least three times, if one goes by the media reports. However, Dawood’s death has always been a case of media buzz with no official confirmation. Since the 1993 Bombay serial blasts that claimed over 200 lives and injured several hundred, Pakistan has repeatedly denied any role in the blasts or sheltering Dawood and his family.
The only time Islamabad inadvertently acknowledged his presence was in 2020. In order to keep itself out of FATF’s grey list, Islamabad tacitly admitted the presence of underworld don on its soil. The 2020 order included Dawood’s name in the list of 88 terrorists and related organisations that were sanctioned for financing terror activities.
But all this has never really lifted the veil of mystery from the existence of Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan. There have been multiple reports of him running a drug cartel that also finance the terror activities targeting India. In 2003, the US had declared Dawood Ibrahim as ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’.
Several dossiers and diplomatic discussions have been exchanged between two nuclear-armed neighbours but Dawood Ibrahim remains a mystery. Meanwhile, Chhota Shakeel, Dawood’s close aide has reportedly said that ‘Bhai is 1000 per cent fit.’ According to a TOI report, Shakeel rebuffed all buzz surrounding the alleged poisoning of the underworld don.
The endless loop of Dawood Ibrahim’s death news
2016: There were reports that Dawood Ibrahim was suffering from gangrene. Situation was bad and his one leg had to be amputated. This turned out to be a false news.
2017: A year later, social media was abuzz with Dawood Ibrahim’s death due to brain tumour or heart attack. This time again, Chhota Shakeel rejected the news and said that his boss was fit and fine.
2020: This was the time of first wave of coronavirus pandemic. There were media reports again about Dawood and his wife contracting the coronavirus. Some reports said that Dawood had died of Covid-19 complications. But this turned out to be false, again. In fact, it was his nephew Siraj Kaskar, who lost his life due to the deadly virus.