Author: Qaswar Abbas
Publication: India Today
Date: June 6, 2011
URL: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story/dawood-ibrahim-white-house-in-clifton-road-karachi/1/139562.html
Introduction: Our correspondent in Karachi
Qaswar Abbas braves menacing security agents and evasive neighbours on Clifton
Road where the don is believed to be protected with a false name in a five-bungalow
complex
The Interpol red corner notice for Dawood
Ibrahim lists two addresses for him in Karachi. House No. 37 in 30th Defence
Housing Authority (DHA) and 'White House', near the Saudi mosque in the city's
tony Clifton Road locality. Both are some five kilometres apart. House No.
37 is a sprawling single-storey mansion now occupied by an engineer, Malik
Bostan. A voice tells me this in flawless Urdu over a gate-mounted intercom.
So I set off for Clifton which is less than two kilometres away from the naval
airbase, pns Mehran, which was attacked by militants a few days ago. One of
India's most wanted fugitives lives in a complex of five tightly packed bungalows
set in an acre of prime real estate in Karachi. It is also less than 500 metres
from the tomb of a revered saint, Shah Abdullah Ghazi.
The streets in Clifton are a far cry from
the chaos of Karachi. They are clean, immaculately maintained and there are
few people to be seen. Also missing are the city's ubiquitous yellow and green
auto-rickshaws. Land Cruisers and S-Class Mercedes cars swish in and out of
large gates. Only a few houses have numbers. Even the securitymen hide behind
the gates and have to be buzzed by intercom. Very clearly, this is a place
you go to only if you are a resident or have been invited. A bungalow here
costs upwards of Rs 10 crore. Most residents are either retired navy or air
force brass or billionaires whose industries figure prominently on the Karachi
stock exchange.
The 'White House' is a complex of five single-storey
bungalows set behind tall coconut trees. Two white buildings flank what seems
to be the main dwelling, a dust brown single-storey mansion numbered 105/II.
There is another bungalow at the rear. All the windows are sealed shut. The
gate has a cctv camera. The walls are seven feet high but there are no high
barbed-wire topped walls like the ones at the Osama bin Laden compound in
Abbottabad. Apparently for good reason. The residents are state guests. Photography
is prohibited, but there are no signboards. I discover why. As we take pictures
of the bungalows, a man wearing a shalwar appears almost out of nowhere. "Who
are you? What are you doing here? This isn't a tourist spot," he shouts
in Urdu. He doesn't reveal his identity, police or military, but has security
establishment written all over his clean-shaven face. He grabs my digital
camera and shoos my taxi away. A few minutes later, he tosses the camera towards
me. The memory card has been expertly removed. It turns out he is one of a
dozen security personnel who guard the houses round the clock.
No one will tell you Dawood or Sultan Shah
(his nom de guerre in close circles) lives here. Conversations are furtive,
names are concealed. "If you want information about Dawood, then I'm
not your man," says Muhammad Shakeel, a retired officer of the Pakistan
Air Force. The response is the same from most people. Dawood is He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Probably because he has another name, Sultan Shah. A businessman who enjoys
the patronage of the establishment.
He has an estimated net worth of $15 billion
with investments in the shipping industry, airline sector and garment factories.
His business interests are spread across Karachi, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand,
Nepal, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Germany, the UK, France, and several countries in
Africa. The Dawood group is well-entrenched in Singapore and Malaysia with
investments in real estate and shipping.
Pakistani authorities, however, deny any knowledge
of his whereabouts. A source believes he may actually be living in Quetta,
the provincial capital of Baluchistan. A retired deputy inspector general
of the Karachi police advised this correspondent to look overseas. "Dawood
and the other terrorists wanted by India do not live in Pakistan. Look for
them in South Asia, Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong," the officer says
during a meeting in another part of Karachi.
However, in the course of the off-record conversation,
he admits to personally supervising security arrangements for Dawood's daughter's
wedding with Javed Miandad's son. "I was told by the police brass to
make foolproof security arrangements for the event. The five day event was
attended by the who's who of Pakistan-businessmen, politicians and army officials,"
he says. Another sign of how deep his roots run in his adopted country.
