Timeline| Why is Dawood India's most wanted terrorist

Underworld fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim has reportedly been hospitalised in Pakistan's Karachi after being poisoned. Son of a police constable, Dawood was born in India’s Mumbai and till date the law enforcement agencies have not been successful in fully dismantling Dawood’s D company and his criminal syndicate. Let’s understand how Dawood went on to become the most dreaded gangster of India. 

Born in Slum- The Haji Mastan chapter 

Dawood was born as Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar to a constable in Mumbai Police Ibrahim in 1955. Dawood spent his younger years in Dongi - a slum in Mumbai where he got involved in crimes like theft and robbery. 

Dawood was limited to small scale robbery until he got close to Hai Mastan- referred to as Mumbai’s biggest don back in time. Dawood was 19 years old when he banked $200,000 by jumping a courier for Haji Mastan. 

The Mumbai Police sensed an opportunity in Dawood’s ever growing ambitions and asked to take on Haji Mastan. Dawood was frustrated by playing second fiddle to Haji Mastan. 

When Dawood fled to Dubai 

The Mumbai Police which attempted to end the Mastan empire through Dawood ended up having a migraine due to the rampant gangwar between the Dawood and Mastan camps. As Mumbai Police indicted Dawood Ibrahim for murder in 1984, he fled to Dubai where he allegedly lived in a bungalow called the ‘White House’ and hosted his bosses and Bollywood filmstars. 

While Dawood fled to Dubai, he didnot leave Mumbai. His D-company controlled trafficking syndicates, killings in Mumbai. Dawood has entrusted his second in-command Chhota Rajan for the same. 

1993 Mumbai blasts forced Dawood take refuge in Pakistan 

After 13 bomb blasts jolted Mumbai, the agencies found the involvement of Dawood in the same. Following this, the FBO and Interpol placed Dawood on their most-wanted list and he had to flee from Dubai to escape arrest. 

Since then, Dawood has been living in Pakistan’s Karachi as per the agencies- a claim that has been constantly denied by Pakistani authorities. However, Alishah Parker- the son of Dawood’s sister Hasina Parkar had said to the National Investigative Agency (NIA) that Dawood lives in Pakistan and has remarried there. 

Reports claim that Dawood had bailed out Pakistan’s Central Bank with a cash loan in exchange for refuge. 

Dawood-  A terror financer  

As India liberalised its economy in 1991, there was much less scope left for black marketing and smuggling and everything was available in the open. Dawood at the present day has become one of the largest terror financers in the world and has links with terror organisations like Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda and Laskhar-e-Taiba among others. He is said to have aided LeT’s attack on Mumbai in 2008. Along with India and the united States, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has also designated Dawood as a ‘global terrorist’.