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| India-Pakistan |
| UAE offers criminals in return for flights |
| 2003-04-20 |
| I found this on an Indian News Channel. India has been trying to extradite criminals from numerous countries in the Middle East and SE Asia. Dawood Ibrahim is the Mafia guy responsible for a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai (Bombay), India around 1993 that killed almost 300 people in a single day. He currently lives in Karachi, Pakland courtesy of Perv and ISI. India is having to bribe the UAE to extradite these criminals, something pretty screwed up with that. I think India should use the US method of negotiation, with an aircraft carrier. Civil Aviation Minister Shahnawaz Hussain has confirmed that there is an informal agreement between the Indian government and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to exchange wanted criminals in return for more connecting flights. The four recent deportations of mafia dons based in Dubai like Ijaz Pathan, prime accused in the Mumbai blasts case and Iqbal Kaskar, Dawood Ibrahim's brother, are in fact part of the straightforward unwritten deal between the two governments. In return, just days after the two criminals landed in Mumbai, the Civil Aviation Minister allowed Emirates Airlines to fly as many as 500 extra passengers into and out of India every week - a decision taken during a one-on-one meeting between Hussein and the UAE Foreign Minister. "We have a good understanding with them. If they are helping us then we should also give them what they want," said Hussain. Sources have confirmed to NDTV that the deal has been on for some time. Talks were initiated in December 2002 when Dubai let Anees Ibrahim, the younger brother of Dawood Ibrahim, get away despite India's request to extradite him. In a retaliatory snub, New Delhi had cancelled concessions to Emirates, the UAE national carrier. The bookings had been completed and the airline was planning to operate 16 flights in the holiday season to clear the rush. But when the application came up, the Director General of Civil Aviation cancelled it and said that he was acting under the advice of the Foreign Ministry. "There was no way that the Dubai-based national airlines would have been allowed additional flights in these circumstances, " a senior official from the ministry said. Things have changed dramatically since then – an example of economic rationale working where South Block’s tough diplomacy had failed. |
| Posted by:rg117 |