Old methods have failed, new approach needed
An entirely avoidable and unfortunate controversy had been created with the Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary's response to a question in the lok Sabha recently, that the Government was unaware of terrorist Dawood Ibrahim's whereabouts. This had gone contrary to New Delhi's stated position that he was in Pakistan and that it was Islamabad's responsibility to turn him over to India to face the many charges of terror attacks.
On Monday, Union Minister for Home Affairs Rajnath Singh set the record straight by saying that there was “credible information” and “overwhelming evidence” of Ibrahim's presence in Pakistan. Mr Singh's statement should set the controversy to rest. But what will continue to dodge this Government — as it has previous Governments — is the means that must be adopted to get the terror mastermind back to India. The Home Minister said that ‘persuasion’ and ‘pressure’ will be applied on Pakistan. This has not worked in the past and is unlikely to do so now or in the near future.
Although Ibrahim is a wanted man, he continues to live well and free in Pakistan, and is known to even travel abroad as and when he wishes to or when the international community turns on the heat. In other words, despite the material that India has provided, Islamabad simply does not wish to pursue the matter. The uncomfortable question is: Where does all this leave IndiaIJ For more than two decades now, we have been slinging verbal assaults on Pakistan over the issue. Nothing has been achieved.
It is not clear whether the Narendra Modi Government and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will craft a new strategy to lay their hands on the man. While in the case of the likes of Hafiz Saeed and Zakiur Rehman lakhvi, the Government of Pakistan has taken the plea that India has not given enough evidence to nail them, its position on Ibrahim has been even more outrageous — it has simply denied the man's presence in Pakistan.
And so, while the Union Minister for Home Affairs has remarked that Pakistan had failed to “track down” the most wanted man in India, the brutal fact is that there is no reason for Islamabad to ‘track him down', since the authorities are fully in the know about his whereabouts.
There are two primary reasons why Pakistan is refusing to act on the matter. The first is that an acknowledgement of Dawood Ibrahim's presence there will expose Islamabad's lie of many decades and open a can of worms regarding the role of individuals and institutions in shielding the terrorist. The second reason is that Ibrahim's business empire — which he has built mainly as a front for his many nefarious dealings — has benefitted Pakistan's rickety economy.
There have been reports that his firms virtually control the fortunes of the country's stock market. Even if these stories are apocryphal, they indicate the extent of influence that Dawood Ibrahim wields over the Pakistani economy.