India’s biggest fugitive, Dawood Ibrahim, escaped an attempt on his life in Karachi recently. Government sources in Delhi confirmed there was an attempted hit, but claimed that the details were sketchy. Sources in the Gulf, however, said the underworld don was shot at while leaving his Karachi mansion on September 2. Furthermore, the bid on Dawood’s life, say sources, was made by insiders. Apparently, Dawood was leaving his house to board an aircraft that he uses for travel in Pakistan when persons from his own gang made the attempt to kill him. Government sources said he was not seriously hurt.Gulf sources say the Dawood syndicate suspects the assassination was undertaken at the behest of Pakistani authorities. Though he is an honoured guest of the ISI, Islamabad is under pressure to hand him over to India, which seeks to prosecute him for India’s worst terrorist incident, the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts.