TWO DECADES BACK, India’s intelligence units reportedly attempted to eliminate underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in Dubai, in what came as a rare opportunity to track the “globally wanted man” who would be attending his daughter’s wedding in Dubai.
These missions are usually classified, but came to public eye in 2015, when former Union Home Secretary and Bharatiya Janata Party MP R.K Singh spoke about the operation in an interview with the India Today Group. The insights narrated by Singh went on to become one of the most popular anecdotes of India’s intelligence services and tales of espionage.
See Also: Is Dawood Ibrahim Alive? Sources Claim D-Company Is Under Pressure After Dhurandhar Ruckus
The mission, however, failed due to lack of effective coordination between the law enforcement agencies and the intelligence units in India. While the entirety of this claim remains contested, Singh claimed that there were individuals from within the Mumbai Police, who deliberately derailed the operation.
However, former Mumbai Police Commissioner Meera Borwankar stated to the press that it was a lack of coordination, rather than deliberate sabotage that derailed the mission.
The operation dates back to 2005, when the Indian intelligence agencies received information about the wedding of Dawood Ibrahim’s daughter, Mahrukh, to Junaid, the son of former Pakistani cricketer Javed Miandad.
According to the sources, the wedding celebrations were to take place in July, with the Nikah (ritual-ceremonial marriage) in Mecca on July 9, and the Walimah (Reception party), at Dubai’s Grand Hyatt on July 23, 2005.
It was this marriage ceremony which arrived as an opportunity for the Indian intelligence agencies to track Dawood. By then, Dawood had been marked as a “globally wanted terrorist” by the United Nations, and pressure had begun to mount on Pakistan to act against him.
Therefore, it was a golden opportunity for the Indian authorities to take on Dawood in Dubai, without a traditional extradition or arrest mission that would thwart any advances made on Dawood’s whereabouts.
Dawood was a wanted man in connection with the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts which led to the death of over 250 people, alongside his transnational criminal network collaborating with global terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba. The mission began under the supervision of Ajit Doval, who had recently retired as the Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB).
The mission was planned very discreetly, with Chhota Rajan being involved rather than Indian commandos. The idea was to ensure that the Indian government can publicly deny in case the plan went haywire.
Chhota Rajan was also a gangster in Mumbai, and a part of Dawood’s gang. They split after the Bombay blasts of 1993, and Rajan began to project himself as the Hindu don, who would fight the butcher of Mumbai — Dawood Ibrahim. Reportedly, Rajan was also looking for an opportunity to take on Dawood for an attack against him in Bangkok in 2000. Thus, for the Indian agencies it was a perfect ploy to pit two enemies against each other.
Subsequently, Rajan put two of his most trusted henchmen Vicky Malhotra and Farid Tanasha. The two sharpshooters were hiding in a southeast Asian country, and entered India through the 24-Parganas in West Bengal.
According to the interview given by RK Singh to India Today, the two sharpshooters were trained at a secret location in India, and a detailed plan was forged to eliminate Dawood. Both of them were given fake travel documents and flight tickets to Dubai.
However, the operation was seriously dismantled when cops in the Mumbai Police got to know about the two wanted criminals of the Chhota Rajan gang, and their movements in the country. The former Home Secretary alleged that Mumbai Police officials deliberately sabotaged the operation, and captured Tanasha and Malhotra.
The Intelligence Bureau was briefing its plan to the sharpshooters one afternoon, when Deputy Commissioner of Police in the Mumbai Crime Branch Dhananjay Kamlakar and his team dashed into the hotel and arrested the two. Doval, who was briefing the two in the meeting, tried to explain the situation to the police officials, but Kamalkar stood his ground, arrested the two, and took them to Mumbai.
Subsequently, Doval was forced to drop the operation, and the national dailies reported the incident the next day — turning one of the most high-voltage operations into a futile exercise.
Later, Farid Tanasha was allegedly murdered in June 2010 by the members of the Bharat Nepali gang — a breakaway faction from the Chota Rajan gang. Vicky Malhota was sentenced to five years in prison, but was able to escape and no information about him has come to public eye ever since.
Covert operations are an integral part of any country’s strategic interests, for instance the mission to eliminate Osama Bin laden in Abbottabad by the US Navy Seals. However, India’s plan to eliminate one of the most wanted global terrorists was thwarted by a lack of coordination amongst its own agencies.
The former Home Secretary RK Singh has often criticized the Mumbai police for deliberately sabotaging the plan out of their close links with the underworld don. The officials of the Mumbai police, however, have always denied such allegations.
Whatever be the reality of the incident, it was certainly one of the most intense covert operations planned by the Indian Intelligence agencies.
[Rh/AR/RS]
Suggested Reading:
Subscribe to our channels on YouTube and WhatsApp
Download our app on Play Store