New Delhi, January 18: As global pressure mounts on Pakistan to dismantle terror networks on its soil, India's most wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, operating from Karachi, has reportedly relocated key family members, including his son and the children of two younger brothers. Earlier Dawood had arranged Portuguese passports for his eldest daughter Mahrukh, married to Pakistani Cricketer Javed Miandad's son Junaid, Indian intelligence sources revealed to IANS.

Sources said that Dawood's younger brother Mustakeem Ali Kaskar is already settled in Dubai and looks after D-company's "legitimate" business in United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar. Mustakeem, who runs a garment factory in UAE, reportedly takes care of a few close relatives of the D-family who were recently flown to Dubai from Karachi. Intelligence sources said that Dawood's brother Anees Ibrahim who lives in Defence Housing Area in Karachi, has also gone off the radar for the past two weeks. Dawood's notorious lieutenant and extortion points-man Chhota Shakeel is also lying low these days.

Looking after the D-company's financial empire, Anees Ibrahim, an accused in the Mumbai serial blasts of 1993, has also shifted his children to a country in the Middle East. At present Ibrahim looks after Mehran Paper Mill, located 154 km away from Karachi, in Kotli Industrial area of Sindh province. The paper mill, patronised by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI), is allegedly involved in printing of Fake Indian Currency Notes(FICN). Earlier, the US Department of the Treasury Office of the Foreign Assets Control, had asked Islamabad to shut the paper mill as it was subject to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act filed against fugitive Dawood Ibrahim.

While Nurul Haque, another Dawood sibling, died in Pakistan, his eldest brother Sabir Ahmed was gunned down in a shootout in Mumbai in 1981. Sabir's family later shifted to Pakistan and is being looked after Dawood. Sources said the don's son Moin Kaskar frequently flies to London after marrying the daughter of a well-known South Asian Muslim businessman in Britain. The couple were reportedly living in Dawood's Clifton bungalow in Karachi till 2019. Moin handles the D-company's multi-million real estate business in Karachi, Lahore and the UAE.

Reeling under pressure from the global agency Financial Action Task Force(FATF), the Pakistan government recently issued an arrest warrant against Maulana Masood Azhar, kingpin of the banned terror organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed(JEM). As soon as JeM chief was targeted by the Imran Khan government, the focus(largely of media in South Asia) shifted to Dawood Ibrahim whose name also figures on the list of Interpol and global terrorists.

While the D-Company seems to face the heat after the arrest of Lashkar e-Toiba commander Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, sources said that Prime Minister Imran Khan, a former cricket colleague of Javed Miandad, might not give a go-ahead to pin down Dawood Ibrahim. From time to time, the entire D-company has been relocating its key members whenever the syndicate comes on the radar of global authorities.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 18, 2021 09:50 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).