Dawood Ibrahim did attend the marriage of his daughter Mahrukh with Junaid, son of former Pakistan cricketer Javed Miandad. The underworld don beat the hawk eye of top global intelligence agencies and the crosshairs of rivals’ guns to be present at the nikah which was solemnised on July 9 at the mosque in Mecca, as was reported by TOI on July 10. The publicised function of July 23 at Dubai’s Grand Hyatt was not the nikah ceremony but ‘waleema’ or reception that was deliberately passed off as the marriage to hoodwink intelligence agents, Dawood’s rivals and the media. And virtually everyone fell for the elaborate cover.
Top intelligence sources say Dawood travelled to Saudi Arabia on a Pakistani passport to attend the wedding. And how did he reach the venue for the wedding in Mecca? No one is certain, although intelligence sources cited the presence of a group of burkha-clad women at the Mecca mosque whose identity could not be established but who were said to represent the Dawood family. Perhaps one of them was the don himself. |