No Pakistan government will admit presence of Dawood Ibrahim in that country: Chidambaram

A day after the whereabouts of wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim were reportedly revealed by CNN-News18, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram has claimed that “no Pakistan government is going to admit that Dawood has sought refuge in their country,” according to another CNN-News18 report .

Through a sting operation, it had earlier been reported that Ibrahim lived at D 13, Block 4, Clifton, Karachi in a huge bungalow barricaded on all sides.

As a response to the video of Ibrahim’s house released by the news channel, Chidambaram said, “the Pakistan government is never going to yield Dawood Ibrahim to you. They are never going to admit that Dawood has sought refuge there and even if they do, they are never going to make them available to you."

Dawood’s address has been known to Indian intelligence agencies for a long time. Hindustan Times reported in 2015 that India possessed a telephone bill addressed to D 13, Block 4, Clifton in the name of Ibrahim’s wife Mehjabeen.

The Congress leader too referred to this in his statement. “The whole world knows that Dawood Ibrahim has an address in Pakistan. In fact we have shared with the Pakistan government. They have of course denied it,” he added, according to the CNN-News 18 report.

Pakistan has indeed been in denial. Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit asked the Indian government to “share information on Dawood, if you have any." Chidambaram also commented on the efforts of the Indian government. He reportedly said that not being able to bring back Ibrahim is “not a failure of any Indian government. The problem is with Pakistan.”

Chidambaram’s remarks on Dawood Ibrahim come at a time when the MEA said that the government was pursuing the matter of bringing back the underworld don from Pakistan.

“Dawood is a UN-designated global terrorist and a fugitive of the Indian law. At several points of time, his details have been shared by India with Pakistan government, including his possible locations in Pakistan. We will continue to pursue this matter and we expect Pakistan to hand over this international terrorist to us,” MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup had said on Thursday.

Watch Chidambaram’s interview with CNN-News18 here:

With inputs from IANS