One of the most worse maintained secret of this world is Dawood’s presence in Pakistan, another even worse maintained secret is that he is hands in glove with Pakistan’s ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence). The not so surprising thing is also that he is hands in glove with Hafiz Saeed’s LeT (Lashkar-e-Toiba).
While the presence of Dawood, the most wanted fugitive of India is being discussed, there is a rumour going around that he will be back in India by 2019, before the elections and it would present a glowing crown on already excellent anti-terror operations conducted by current Indian government. Raj Thackeray even proclaimed that Dawood was in discussion with the current government to discuss a return to India, considering his political clout and links with the Mumbai police, it is safe to assume something is going on, but have no doubt, his return will be on Indian government’s terms and it will mostly be an arrest or a well thought execution – especially now that we have Colonel Lt. Purohit back in the army Intelligence and Ajit Doval at the helm as NSA (National Security Advisor).
With the arrest of Iqbal Kaskar by Senior Inspector Pradeep Sharma (an encounter specialist, who was suspended and cases put against him by Congress-NCP government, one of the most dreaded, that’s another story, let’s not delve too much into that now), seizing of Dawood’s properties in United Arab Emirates worth 15k crore seized at the beginning of this year and 42k crore seized in United Kingdom at the request of Indian government, there has been a significant financial squeeze on Dawood.
There are intelligence notes from both US and India which states Dawood funds ISI and LeT, this financial squeeze might have put a huge dent on the funding. Besides this, the arrest of his brother tightens the noose around his family members here.
The other major impact would have been hawala transaction reduction post demonetisation, one of the main source of funds for terrorism and Dawood. The flow of cash slowly but effectively reduced, resources drying up and there has been documented reports of how cruel the underworld is, if you are not at the top, either the law enforcement agencies or other rivals will take you out. Dawood, to save his life, the only option for him is to formally surrender, accept the punishment and be tried under the law in India. There will definitely not be shortage of lawyers, human right activists asking for leniency for sure, but if the current government still remains post 2019, it’ll be surely death sentence (The attorney general representing the government will ensure Dawood gets it).
