Mumbai’s Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) is questioning a key member of Dawood Ibrahim gang for alleged links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to supply arms for terror activities in India.
ATS has sought a fresh remand for D-Company top lieutenant Mirza Mohiddin Baig, currently under Crime Branch’s custody, to question him in connection with terror links in India.
Additional Director General of Police, Rakesh Maria, confirmed to MiD DAY that Baig is being interrogated for terror links in India. He refused to give further details.
Baig, who was on the Interpol’s wanted list, was arrested in Colombo on May 8, 2009, after a long stint in Sri Lanka, and deported to India.
The police had recovered three pistols and 18 live rounds from him.
Since then, the gangster had been in judicial custody until last week when the Indian Crime Branch took over, after his name cropped up again after intelligence reports indicate that D-Company is procuring arms and ammunition from the remaining members of LTTE for operations in India.
Investigations by ATS and the Crime Branch provide evidence that D-gang members have allied with the Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba for spreading terror in the country.
Reports indicate that under the ‘Karachi Project’, terrorist organizations have been using Dawood’s network in India for logistic support.
A few hundred of the LTTE core cadre have gone underground with huge quantities of arms and deadly explosive RDX after Prabhakaran was killed last year.
Baig was arrested soon after the operations.
Baig’s questioning assumes significance in light of reports that LTTE is planning to target the country’s Prime Minister and Home Minister.
Police sources said that Baig could also be questioned for the alleged involvement of D-Company, directly or indirectly, in the Varanasi bomb blast earlier this month.
Baig climbed up the mafia ranks after he was running illegal ISD facilities.
Dawood’s second-in-command, Chhota Shakeel, soon made him the nodal person in Mumbai.
The gangster from Kortula in Karim Nagar district in Andhra Pradesh was assigned the task to deliver arms to D-Company shooters in Mumbai, before he was arrested by the Crime Branch’s Criminal Intelligence Unit. An AK-47 rifle and four imported revolvers were recovered from Baig during the raid on his hideout in 2000.
The gangster had then confessed of having links with gun suppliers in Bangkok, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a former Crime Branch officer said.
Baig soon jumped bail and escaped to Dubai and later surfaced in Colombo.
Rashid Malbari, another ace shooter in Dawood’s gang, was carrying out underworld operations from Sri Lanka. (Courtesy: Daily News)
