Dongri to Dubai - Six Decades of the Mumbai Mafia
‘The piracy industry in India is 1,500 crore rupees and much of it goes into funding terror,’ said Moser Baer India Chief Executive Harish Dayani during the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) conference in Panaji in 2010. A cabinet minister from Maharashtra, meanwhile, pegged the figure at 4,000 crore rupees.
Dawood through his well-oiled network in Dubai and Pakistan has managed to generate a massive turnover only through film piracy. According to a dossier accessed from the CBI Special Task Force, ‘The D-Company was readily able to transition to film piracy through its well-established hold and influence in the Bollywood movie industry. Beginning with humble King’s Video, the D-company’s film piracy business became a business empire in itself, a very profitable one. The syndicate’s Al-Mansoor and SADAF brands acquired extraordinary market power in the distribution of pirated films throughout the South Asia region and also spread to European and American markets. Still, SADAF’s biggest exports were to India, which, due to lax anti-piracy enforcement on the part of Indian authorities, remained an open channel.’
Bollywood and Hollywood products duplicated at SADAF’s plant were readily smuggled into India via Nepal. The D Company gained control of the SADAF Trading Company based in Karachi, which allowed the gang to better organise distribution in Pakistan and, more important, acquire the infrastructure to manufacture pirated movies. Indian authorities had been aware of D-Company’s film piracy operations in Pakistan since the nineties but were practically powerless to intervene. Only after 2005, when US Customs seized a large shipment of SADAF brand counterfeit discs in Virginia, did Pakistani authorities, under a threat of trade sanctions, begin raiding D-Company’s duplicating facilities in Dubai and Karachi.
Piracy funds generated through such massive operations were diverted for funding of jehadi activities. Millions of dollars that went into the coffers of these radical organisations made Dawood their financial artery. There was no way that they could allow any government or a politician to extradite their golden goose and cripple them financially.
Ironically, Dawood himself is a Konkani Muslim who believes in Sunni Islam and does not adhere to the Wahabi idealogy. Tiger Memon who triggered the serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993, on the other hand, keeps shuttling to various Pakistani cities, like Muzaffarabad and Jalalabad, talking about jehad and exhorting the youth of PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) to fight for the Kashmir cause. Dawood does no such thing. Dawood is not even a practising Muslim.
It was easier for him to buy his freedom by donating funds to these organisations and remain invincible and unassailable.
‘So Dawood is not doling out funds to these fundamentalist organisations out of his religious zeal or jehadi fervour but he is doing it for his own vested interests of survival and endless clout,’ Maria explains.
In India, he used the Mumbai police and influential politicians, while he is using the jehadi elements of Pakistan for his survival.
It appears for Dawood that the show should never stop, even if the players change.
Epilogue
The sprawling compound was completely quiet, the silence broken only by footfalls of the patrolling guards. Boots crunched on gravel as they strolled along the high-walled perimeter and inside it, their hands resting casually on the assault rifles slung over their shoulders. It seemed just like any other night.
This was the hiding place of Osama bin Laden in Waziristan Haveli, literally meaning a ‘mansion in Waziristan’, located at the end of a dirt road in Abbottabad, Pakistan, just off a major highway. Not even a mile away lay the Pakistan Military Academy in Bilal Town, the suburbs of which hosted retired military officers. The mansion was like a mini fortress with 12 x 18 foot high walls, no telephone to prevent any signal being traced, and with guards patrolling 24x7.
Bin Laden was not hiding in some obscure cave in Afghanistan then, he was right here in Pakistan under the nose of the Pakistani military despite Pakistan’s vehement denials. His location was revealed after the CIA tracked down one of the Al Qaeda chief’s trusted couriers. After a long debate, US President Barack Obama gave his approval to invade the mansion and kill Osama if need be even though Bin Laden was never actually seen in the compound. And so, at 1 am on the night of 2 May 2011, a team of US Navy SEAL commandoes landed from two helicopters to execute the operation with the code name Operation Neptune Spear.
The objective of the mission was simple and unambiguous. Storm the mansion, remove all perceived threats, eliminate public enemy number one, Osama bin Laden, then scour the compound to retrieve any and all important documents.
The commandoes had all the practice they could possibly get. In preparation for the mission, the CIA had built a replica of the mansion, where the commandoes had spent days practising and maneouvering through the maze of rooms of the three-storey building. They were on edge, and were ready to carry out what would definitely be the most important mission of their lives. The dangers were many, as not only was the operation to be carried out so close to a military base and the target was the most wanted man in the world, but the Pakistan government had been kept completely in the dark about the entire mission. So, if anything went wrong, the commandoes knew they would probably not make it out alive.
The stage was set. A couple of US Navy SEALs planted the explosives on a wall, and waited for the right moment. It was not long in coming.
Precisely at 1 am, the US commandoes breached the boundary wall. The deafening explosion took out a few guards nearby, who fell down stunned, and it dawned on the others that the unthinkable had happened: the safe house had outlasted its safety. The guards immediately began firing at the commandoes, who had, however, come armed with heavy firepower. All guards on the outside were quickly overpowered, and the fight moved into the building with the Navy SEALs team hardly stopping for breath.
The next gun battle ensued inside the building on the first floor, where two adult males lived. They were ready for the onslaught, but gave way under the relentless determination of the team. One of them even tried to use a woman as a human shield, resulting in her death as well.
The commandoes fought their way to the second and third floors where Bin Laden’s family used to live. One by one, the family members were all overpowered, and Bin Laden was shot dead. One of his adult sons perished in the battle, so did two couriers and the unfortunate woman.
The intensive training in the replica mansion had prepared the commandoes well. The entire firefight was over in just a few minutes. The men then spent the next few minutes scouring the headquarters, gathering any computers and documents they could find.
The only glitch in the well-oiled plan was that one of the helicopters reportedly failed due to a mechanical failure. So, the commandoes loaded Bin Laden’s body into the other one, along with all the retrieved items, and left behind a smoking compound, flames licking at the building, a safe house that ultimately could not keep the terrorist safe.
Earlier, the CIA had devised another plan, one where the compound would be bombed with a dozen 2000-lb pound bombs dropped from two B2 stealth bombers. However, the drawback was that in such an event, it would have been impossible to actually determine if Bin Laden was indeed among the dead, and eventually, it was dropped for the far more risky, but ultimately successful Operation Neptune Spear.
Later, it was confirmed that the body recovered by the US Navy SEALs commandoes was indeed that of Bin Laden. A DNA test was carried out, and his DNA matched that of his sister, who had died of cancer earlier in Boston, and whose brain was taken into custody and preserved for that very reason, that some day, it would aid in identifying the dreaded terrorist.
After the Raymond Allen Davis incident in early 2011, the ties between the United States and Pakistan had already become strained. The killing of Bin Laden by the CIA, sanctioned by the US, on Pakistan soil and without any knowledge of Pakistani authorities, served to further alienate the two from each other
. The world was now pointing fingers at Pakistan and the ISI because contrary to Pakistan’s claim that Osama bin Laden was not on its soil but was in fact hiding in Afghanistan. Operation Neptune Spear proved otherwise. This in turn implied one of two things, either that the Pakistani authorities there had no idea about the fact, something that could be extremely embarrassing for the government or that the ISI knew Bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan and had chosen to turn a blind eye, or worse, kept him as a guest. For a country that received billions of dollars in aid from the US, this was a precarious situation to be in.
Either way, the then ISI’s Director General Ahmad Shuja Pasha found himself in a difficult situation on 2 May. Not only had he to contend with the bold and audacious operation of the CIA, he now had a liability on his hands—Dawood Ibrahim, whom the ISI itself had welcomed into the country. The brazen killing of Bin Laden the CIA carried out right under Pasha’s nose was proof that Dawood too could be targeted and just as easily bumped off as Bin Laden.
Dawood himself had yet another worry on his mind. He had been welcomed into Pakistan by the ISI, and was well settled in his home in Karachi. But the local mafia had always been hostile toward him. If the CIA could take out Bin Laden so easily, how would long would it be before the local gangs were emboldened enough to attack him? But Dawood need not have worried. After Dubai, Karachi had become his second home; the ISI and the Pakistan administration had taken pains to ensure that he felt completely at home. They would never let him be captured, let alone killed. He was far too valuable an asset to them to neglect.
The ISI set about strategising how to get the don safely out of their country without falling into the US’s hands. Had it been anyone else, the ISI would simply have sent them away and hid them somewhere in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) or in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). But these places had caves as hideouts, and here, they had a thoroughly urban man on their hands who used the latest technology and was used to a life of luxury and opulence, someone whom they simply could not send to hide in caves in a remote corner of the country. Something else would have to be done.
And something else was indeed done to ensure the don’s safety. It would have to be either Jeddah or Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, the ISI decided. If executed well, the plan was foolproof. Dawood would be out of the country and out of the US’s clutches, and as India did not have an extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia, out of India’s grasp too.
In fact, Dawood’s exact location and whereabouts were not known even to most of the ISI’s top echelon. It was a closely guarded secret, shared only on a need-to-know basis. Dawood’s right-hand man, Chhota Shakeel had set up base in Jeddah, something that the Mumbai Crime Branch already knew. Jeddah, therefore, seemed to be the safest hideout for Dawood.
Within hours of Operation Neptune Spear, the ISI had everything ready. A passport was prepared for Dawood, and an entire escort of Pakistani Rangers were deputed. Their orders: guard Dawood with your life. Air routes were out of the question, as the CIA was watching every single airport, and nothing would escape them. However well they planned, trying to board a flight out of Karachi would be suicidal both for Dawood and for the ISI, especially on such short notice.
It was decided to take the road route. On the night of 2 May, a cohort of Pakistani Rangers arrived at Dawood’s villa in armoured vehicles, on orders to escort Dawood out of the country in top secrecy.
Throughout the day, Dawood had received a flurry of calls from top men in the ISI and the Pakistani government. Interestingly, they all spoke chaste Urdu but betrayed varying accents, from Lahori Punjabi to Karachi Sindhi to the polished and suave sophisticated Urdu. But there was one thing in common in all the calls—all of them expressed the desperate urgency that Dawood be moved to a safer hideout without delay.
As Dawood stood in front of the mirror, he saw a man with a dark complexion, fast receding hairline, a hint of gray on his eyebrow, and a hardened, ruthless face staring back. The man, who was codenamed as ‘Muchchad’ (moustachioed man) by his enemies, is better known as Amir Sahab these days. The only thing he still carried with him through the years was the pair of pensive eyes.
Although his mind was in turmoil, he revealed no signs of stress or pressure, exuding instead a serene calmness. It was completely at odds with his highly strung aides around him, whose faces were creased with worry and anxiety.
He gave one last long look at the man in the mirror in the impeccable suit, before striding out to the portico of his palatial mansion towards his spanking new golden BMW X3. The car, recently imported, with Dawood’s finance managers having had to shell out over a crore in Pakistani rupees, was among the don’s latest acquisitions. He still loved fancy cars and fast women.
As he walked towards his car, he was assailed by a feeling of déjà vu. Memories kept coming back to him, flashbacks, and he tried to ignore them. Exactly twenty-seven years ago, Dawood had escaped from Mumbai. Now, he was making an exit from Karachi, a port city and financial hub of Pakistan. Then a call from Mantralaya, the seat of the Maharashtra government, had alerted him just in time and warned him to relocate from Mumbai. This time, the call came from Islamabad from an aide of Shuja Pasha, the epicentre of power in Pakistan. When he had left Mumbai, he was grieving the loss of his brother Sabir; this time, the wound of losing his brother Noorul Haque alias Noora was still fresh.
As the door of the luxury sedan was held open by an agile, gun-toting Pakistan Ranger, Dawood threw a longing glance back at his mansion. He then sank into the rear seat. Immediately, the convoy drove out, armoured cars in front of and behind the bulletproof BMW.
But there was something different this time. When he had left Mumbai, he had known that he would never be able to return to India. But Karachi was different, it had become almost routine for him to leave Karachi for a while when things became a little too hot to handle, and then return when the dust had settled.
The car flanked by several military vehicles and Pakistani Rangers hit the Karachi National Highway. The world’s second most wanted man, after Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman was on his way out of Pakistan, en route to Jeddah.
But Dawood was not too worried. He would be back soon.
And as anticipated, he was back indeed, within a few months. It took just over three months for the US heat to blow over, and the world had accepted the US’s operation to kill Bin Laden; Pakistan’s outrage had become old news.
So in September, Dawood was back in Karachi to celebrate and host his eldest son Moin’s wedding to a London girl. On 28 September, his son’s palatial bungalow, named Moin Villa after him, was filled with all the powerful people affiliated to the don, from politicians and businessmen to those at the highest levels of the ISI. The wedding itself was an extravaganza in pomp and grandeur, underlining Dawood’s power and unwavering presence in his adoptive country.
The don was back on the throne.
Sources
Most of the information in the book about the history of crime in Mumbai has been primarily sourced from former Mumbai Police Commissioner Mahesh Narain Singh’s compilation, ‘The Growth of Gangsterism in the City’. Singh had compiled it when he was the joint commissioner of police, crime, between 1993 and 1995. The book was written for the police department so that the policemen could get an orientation about organised crime in the city.
Veteran crime reporter and author Sharafat Khan’s self-published book Underworld King Dawood Ibrahim and Gang War written in Urdu was another important source of information.
Text regarding gangland killings and shootouts was procured extensively from the dossiers prepared by the Mumbai Crime Branch.
The article entitled ‘Manya Shot Dead’ (dated 23 January 1982) in the tabloid Current and my interview with Assistant Commissioner of Police Ishaq Bagwan formed the base for information about Manya Surve’s killing.
The details about the tussle betw
een the Pathan mafia and Dawood Ibrahim and insights into the lives of Haji Mastan and Karim Lala were obtained from the cover story entitled ‘The Clan, Bombay’s Brotherhood of Crime’ of The Illustrated Weekly of India (April 14–20, 1985) written by Amrita Shah. Several editions (from 1980 to 1995) of the now defunct Urdu weekly Akhbare Aalam were also consulted with the consent of Mr Khaleel Zahid, the editor and publisher.
Information about Dawood Ibrahim and his empire in Dubai and Pakistan was mostly culled from several dossiers prepared by the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) and Interpol.
The book, The Mumbai Police by Deepak Rao has also been a valuable source of information.
Index
9/11 attacks in US, 300-307; repercussions for Dawood, 301; fallout of, 305
Abu Salem (Abu Salem Ansari), xv, xvi, xx, 254, 256, 266, 268, 270, 308, 331, 368; landed in Dubai, 254, 255; and Anees, 254-257, 308; collaboration with Anees, 254, 256, 257; Mumbai’s most narcissistic gangster, 255; family background of, 256; delivered guns to Sanjay Dutt, 256-257; extortion of business community, 258; import of sharpshooters from his hometown, 254, 258, 259; planned murders of: Pradeep Jain, 259; and Omprakash Kukreja, 259-260, 263; and Riyaz Siddiqui, 263; and Mukesh Duggal, 263; Gulshan Kumar, 265-266; parted ways with Anees, 308, 345; and Monica Bedi, 331-333, 345-346; in Lisbon, 332; arrested in Lisbon, 333, 345; relationship with Monica Bedi deteriorated, 346; extradition to India, 333, 346; in Arthur Road Jail, 347; sharpened spoon attack on, 347
Advani, L. K., 226, 266, 316, 341, 342, 343; and his Rath Yatra, 226; parlaying for Dawood’s extradition to India, 341; and his US visit, 342
Agra Summit, 302, 343; and Dawood shifted from Pakistan, 302