'Chota Shakeel' scotches rumours

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI, AUG. 19. Chota Shakeel, a key figure in Dawood Ibrahim's criminal empire, is reportedly safe and has not been a victim of an attack on him in Karachi. Rumours that he was attacked in the Pakistani port city on Friday, have been making the rounds since yesterday. A telephone call to Star TV today, purported to be from Chota Shakeel, claiming that he was in Singapore, not Karachi, along with Dawood Ibrahim, scotched the rumours.

If his claim of being in Singapore is true then what about the Centre's claim that after the Musharraf-Vajpayee summit in Agra, Dawood returned to Karachi? During the run-up to the summit, the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, had said the underworld don was in Karachi.

But then, using mobile or satellite phones anyone can be in Karachi and claim they were elsewhere at a precise moment. This morning, the Mumbai Police Commissioner, Mr. M. N. Singh, said that if the attack did take place, and Shakeel was indeed killed, it would ease things in this metropolis, divided between various gangs, prominent among them being those of Ibrahim-Shakeel and Chota Rajan.

The view from within the anti-crime outfits here, however, is different. Had Shakeel been killed, it could have triggered a massive reprisal here, they say.

Police officials went into a huddle today, planning out strategies to counter possible gangland wars. The State Government, in fact, asked the Centre to confirm the rumours because Dawood's gang had planned and executed the 1993 serial bomb blasts here and has been out of reach since then.

Who triggered the rumours? Was there a motive? Chances are there were. Such rumours may also have put Chota Rajan's gang on the defensive wondering what to do.

What took the cake was ``Chota Shakeel'' telling Star TV over phone: the media should wait for a confirmation before playing up such stories. Apparently he was conscious of the implications of the rumours. The Shakeel-Dawood gang had attacked Chota Rajan in Bangkok some time ago.

Baseless: Minister

PTI reports:

The reports of Chota Shakeel being shot at in Karachi on Friday night were ``mere rumours and there is no truth in them,'' the Minister of State for Home, Mr. Kripashankar Singh, said today.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Front Page
Previous : 'Amnesty for security forces under study'
Next     : First woman Amnesty chief