Date:20/02/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/02/20/stories/2003022005950100.htm

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Dubai deports Dawood's brother, aide

Mumbai Feb. 19. The long arm of the law at last reached Iqbal Shaikh Kaskar, brother of the underworld gangster, Dawood Ibrahim, and his accomplice, Ezaz Pathan, principal accused in the Mumbai bomb blast case, when the authorities in Dubai deported them to India today. The duo was flown in here tonight by an Air India flight from Dubai.

The gangsters, who figure in the list of the 20 terrorists and underworld operatives, handed over to Pakistan for action, were arrested on their arrival and would be produced before different city courts tomorrow.

The Government of the United Arab Emirates arrested and deported them to India in view of the "good bilateral relations," the Union Minister of State for Home, I. D. Swami, said. The arrest was effected after the External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, wrote to the UAE Crown Prince and Defence Minister, Gen. Mohammad bin Rashid al Mukhtoum. Their nabbing has come as a shot in the arm for the Mumbai Police, who threw a security net around the airport awaiting their arrival.

Pathan, a hardened criminal, arranged for the landing of arms, ammunition and RDX explosives at the Shekhadi and the Dighi coasts in the Raigad district of Maharashtra in January-February 1993 at Dawood's behest.

He not only supplied weapons to the rioters in Mumbai but also played a lead role in placing RDX in various parts of the city. The explosion claimed hundreds of lives. Pathan is also involved in several other murders, contract killings and narcotics smuggling.

Iqbal is wanted in several criminal cases, including six murders. He was running Dawood's Dubai-based syndicate, D company, and pulling wires in the Mumbai underworld.

The law is yet to get Dawood and his other brother, holed up in Karachi along with an accomplice, Chhota Shakeel. They are among the 34 accused in the Mumbai bomb blast case who are absconding.