'The Pakistan establishment keeps him well protected.'
Author S Hussain Zaidi has just published his latest book From Dubai To Karachi: The Dawood Saga Continues.
Zaidi, a former crime reporter in Mumbai, began his career as an author with Black Friday: The True Story of Bombay Bomb Blasts (2002) in which he wrote how Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence, ISI, carried out the March 12, 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai with the underworld's help.
Dawood was living in Dubai when the blasts occurred.
Zaidi's second book Dongri to Dubai (2012) traced Dawood's rise from the lanes of Dongri in the Muslim quarter of south Mumbai and was a fascinating read.
From Dubai to Karachi: The Dawood Saga Continues tracks Dawood's crime career after he shifted to Karachi post the Mumbai blasts.
"Dawood is getting a flow of income from different sources in Pakistan," Zaidi tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.
The concluding segment of a two-part interview.
For the last 20 years Dawood has not carried out any criminal act in Mumbai. In your book what happens after he leaves Dubai to go to Karachi? What does he do in Karachi?
You've got to understand Dawood Ibrahim's life right from the day he became a gangster and shot rival gangster Samad Khan in his youth.
He was a small time goon and now he has grown too big.
In corporate language, Dawood is no longer the manager of a small company but he is the chief of a mega corporation.
Dawood cannot go back to the low level and do the things which he did in Mumbai as a young gangster.
Right now, Dawood has invested heavily in the companies of a real estate tycoon in Pakistan.
He is involved in the gold business of Pakistan and invests in the Karachi stock exchange.
Dawood has opened various taps of moneyflow and he is getting a flow of income from different sources in Pakistan.
He is not bothered about small things here (in Mumbai). He is having fun in Pakistan and enjoying life.
Does he have any henchmen left in Mumbai?
He has small level people who do work for him and he gets reports from them.
He does not get involved in things (in Mumbai) as the Dawood gang has now become a mega corporation.
What happened when he moved to Karachi from Dubai in 1994?
In this book I have written that when Dawood went to Karachi and the Memon family too went after the 1993 blasts they were very uncomfortable with their lives.
This is the reason why Yakub Memon came back to India.
Dawood too was feeling uncomfortable in Pakistan as the Pakistani mafia could not tolerate him.
Later the Pakistani mafia was eliminated (by the Pakistani State) and Dawood was kept insulated by them.
They (the Pakistani establishment) kept him well protected.
Today, even the Pakistani navy is partnering Dawood. I have written in detail on this in my book.
You said that Yakub Memon came back whereas the Central Bureau of Investigation has stated that he was caught from the Delhi railway station.
The official narrative in our country is completely different from what actually happened.
Yakub Memon was picked up from Kathmandu in Nepal and he was brought from there to India.
Yakub Memon's Delhi railway station arrest (in August 1994) was for an official press release.
Everyone knows he was picked up from Kathmandu and he came with a lot of evidence against Pakistan, Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim to ensure that he could expose them.
I have written this in my Black Friday book, how the Memons were given Pakistani passports and they went to Bangkok. How they returned to Pakistan, Yakub had got all the proof with him.
- Part 3 of the Interview: When India Nearly Eliminated Dawood...
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