|
SUPARI,
COUNTER-SUPARI
Blood
Feud
The Chhota
Rajan gang sent at least eight missions to Pakistan to eliminate Dawood
Ibrahim
 |
| Rajan's
gang battle has become enmeshed with Indo-Pak conflict |
When
the Chhota Rajan gang killed a Nepalese MP, Mirza Dilshad Beg, in 1998
a sigh of relief was audible in the dingy corridors of Indian intelligence.
For besides being Dawood Ibrahim's point man in Kathmandu, Beg was also
the lynchpin of the ISI's activities in Nepal.
What is
less known is that between February 1997 and December 1998, Rajan has
made at least eight attempts to eliminate Dawood. Rajan gang members acquired
Nepalese passports to facilitate their free movement in Pakistan. In February
1997, Rajan's man Vicky Malhotra entered Karachi as a clothes seller along
with Farid Tanashah. The trip only provided a recce of the area where
Dawood lives-Sea Face, Defence Colony-and not his house.
In March
1997, Tanashah went alone, rented a room at Al Mansoor Apartments in Defence
Colony and befriended one of Basir's employees, Junaid, who promised weapons.
A month
later, Malhotra took with him seven heavily armed men. The group identified
Dawood's house but couldn't carry out the operation as Dawood's movements
were extremely secretive.
On its fourth
visit a couple of months later, the team took up a place in Defence Colony.
But once again Dawood couldn't be tracked.
The next
visit followed two months later. But the death of his daughter Maria kept
Dawood confined to his house. The team went back to Nepal and returned
again hoping to spot Dawood at the graveyard but the Don had been tipped
off. Rajan then recalled them fearing exposure. The seventh attempt was
made in October 1998. One of Rajan's hitmen, Nayan, rented a house in
Karachi watched Dawood for 15 days with the help of Junaid's network,
but in vain.
The final
attempt came in December 1998. A group that included Nayan and Farid entered
Karachi, met Junaid and Ali Khan for arms, but Dawood's spies averted
any bid on his life.
-Sayantan
Chakravarty
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