By IANS
New Delhi : The international community should mount pressure on the country that is “harbouring global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim” so that he could face trial in India, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director Vijay Shankar said here Wednesday without naming Pakistan.
“We all know where he (Dawood) is. The international community should exert pressure on the country for handing over Dawood Ibrahim to India,” Shankar told reporters on the sidelines of the 7th Interpol Conference on Cyber Crime here.
Dawood, India’s most wanted fugitive, is accused of having masterminded the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings that killed 257 people, India’s worst terror attack, among many other crimes.
“The cooperation should not only be restricted to dreaded criminals like Dawood but also to other fugitives posing threats to nations,” he replied, when asked about the efficacy of Interpol Red Corner notices, as they had failed to catch Dawood.
Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble admitted there was no legal sanctity to Red Corner notices that are sent only to inform the member countries about fugitives. At present 186 countries are members of Interpol, the global umbrella organisation of national crime investigating agencies.
“I can only say that it is for the judicial order of that country whether it wanted to comply with the warrant or not,” he said.
However, Noble said: “We have asked the CBI to satisfy some Interpol standards on Dawood, which they have agreed upon.”
Last month the CBI had sent a letter to its Pakistani counterpart, Federal Investigating Agency (FIA), asking it to confirm media reports about the underworld boss and his associates being detained by the country’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI).
The US State Department has labelled Dawood a “specially designated global terrorist” for his alleged links with the Al Qaeda, along with his lieutenant Chhota Shakeel and the Mumbai terror bombings’ alleged mastermind Tiger Memon.
Just last week, US authorities backed India’s long-standing view that Dawood was indeed in Pakistan after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Drug Enforcement Agency managed to procure evidence that proved the Indian fugitive’s role as an Al Qaeda associate and his links with an international drug syndicate.
However, Pakistani authorities have strongly denied the presence of Dawood and his accomplices in the country