| Submit your comments on this article | |
| India-Pakistan | |
| Underworld strife boils over | |
| 2003-08-04 | |
| Yesterday, 11A5S asked about the mafia references in Indian press accounts of terrorism. It isn’t a "code", their is a nexus in the subcontinent between Jihadis, the ISI, and members of the Indian underworld, which is dominated by Muslims. The Indian mafia used to be composed of gangsters of all religions, but after serious anti-Muslim riots in the early 90’s, it split along religious lines, with the most powerful underworld Don, Dawood Ibrahim, used his ISI contacts to carry out serial bombings in Bombay that killed 200 plus people on order to avenge the Muslims who had died in riots. After this he and his closest Muslim associates fled to Karachi where they were given safe have by the ISI in return for lending out some of his hitmen to the ISI. The Hindu gangsters left behind in India had a similar arrangement with the Indian counterpart of the ISI. The latest terror attack in Pakistan, on the Crown Plaza building in Karachi last Friday in which two people were killed, was another in a long saga of underworld clashes in the region, and could herald that more are on the way. The building, known as Kawish Crown Plaza, like many others on the same stretch of road, was constructed in violation of building rules, but no action has been taken against it as it was built by the don of all dons, Dawood Ibrahim, a kingpin in the underworld across South Asia and beyond. Dawood (David as he is called by some friends) hails from Mumbai in India, where he is wanted in connection with a number of criminal acts, including the infamous Bombay blasts of 1993. He has lived in Karachi for some time, although he was not in the port city at the time of the attack.
Chota Rajan was once a part of Dawood’s team, but they parted company in acrimonious circumstances several years ago over Chota Rajan’s attempts to muscle into Dawood’s control over much of Bollywood in Mumbai. It is a virtual open secret that India’s external intelligence outfit, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), has cultivated Chota Rajan against Dawood. Chota Shakeel, another trusty lieutenant of Dawood, plotted to kill Chota Rajan in Bangkok some years ago, aided by Karachi underworld members who included Shoiab Khan, Ibrahim Bholo and Khalid Shahenshah. The scheme failed but a few of the Rajan’s gang were killed. Since that time, the gangs have been at war, with the intelligence agencies of both Pakistan and India trying to extract some benefit. While Chota Rajan was been nurtured by RAW, Dawood has managed to use Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence to his advantage for operations in India. Chota Rajan is believed even to draw financial support from RAW, while Dawood generates his own resources through his illegal businesses, such as gambling dens in South Africa, Bangkok, Dubai and Mumbai. At the same time he has established very powerful crime syndicates in Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Nepal, India and Pakistan. These syndicates are his real strength and keep him ahead of other underworld leaders. The syndicates are involved in murder, the heroin trade and smuggling. Dawood Ibrahim is the charismatic leader who holds these at times feuding syndicates together. Apart from real estate and films (where leading actresses still fawn over him to secure parts), Dawood has his fingers in many other pies. He is known to be involved in illegal gambling on cricket, and can still be seen entertaining players and officials. He has even developed his own religious circle, which is dead against jihadis. His circle of "Breilvi" clerics sing poetry in praise of the Prophet Mohammed. Many other gangsters in Pakistan and the UAE do not mind working with Jihadis. A gangster called Aftab Ansari recruited some jihadis to attack the US consulate in Calcutta a couple years ago, while other gangsters contribute funds to groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba. A few months ago Dawood lost a daughter, after which he became more religious, apparently gave up drinking and began praying five times a day. However, a few weeks ago he was very much back to his old habits and presenting guests with the finest whisky, and enjoying some himself. Dawood appears, though, to be spending more time out of Karachi, and is nested somewhere else, possibly in the capital Islamabad. But he is still the undisputed don, and a long way from the clutches of his bitter enemy Chota Rajan, or RAW for that matter. | |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #6 Zhang--I'm very happy with English and was lamenting our changing names of cities/countries to suit the whims of Third World asshats--but French is fine too! We already pronounce Niger the French way so as to avoid an appointment with the Rev Jackson! |
| Posted by: Not Mike Moore 2003-8-4 10:15:36 PM |
| #5 And these are just a few examples. The Japanese call the US beikoku. See any resemblance to either USA or America? NMM, if you have a problem with the English language, feel free to adopt another one - French, for example. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-8-4 5:02:19 PM |
| #4 Mumbai=Bombay no? Jeez, I want Peking, Rhodesia, and Burma back! Actually, I don't think any of these countries has ever called us USA. The Korean name for the US is mee gook, or rice country. The Chinese name for the US is mei guo or beautiful country. I have no idea what the Indian name for the US is, but I doubt it's USA or even America. And these are just a few examples. I don't really see why we should change our traditional names for these countries just on their say-so. Would they change what they call us on our say-so (esp. Iran, which calls us the Great Satan)*? * Israel being the Little Satan |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-8-4 4:53:47 PM |
| #3 Mumbai=Bombay no? Jeez, I want Peking, Rhodesia, and Burma back! |
| Posted by: Not Mike Moore 2003-8-4 4:24:45 PM |
| #2 Thanks for squaring me away, Paul. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2003-8-4 12:01:31 PM |
| #1 India's intelligence services clearly have no problems getting their hands dirty. And yet terrorist attacks occur on a regular basis. I wonder how much of it is the result of corruption among the guardians of the peace and what is attributable to demographic facts (10% of India's population is Muslim). |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-8-4 9:56:29 AM |