Death rumours baseless, Dawood ‘bhai’ is 1000% fit, says his aide Chhota Shakeel

NEW DELHI: “Rumours of Bhai’s death are baseless. He is 1,000% fit,” Chhota Shakeel, a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim, told TOI on Monday. Following a buzz on social media platforms, including in Pakistan, about the poisoning of the fugitive underworld don-turned-ISI asset, Shakeel said these are “just rumours floated from time to time with mischievous intent”, reported.
An accompanying internet shutdown in Pakistan late Sunday further fanned the rumours. Shakeel, who looks after the global operations of D-Company, the criminal enterprise founded by Dawood, claimed to have found ‘Bhai’ in fine fettle when he visited him in Pakistan.

Intelligence sources here ruled out the possibility of Dawood Ibrahim being poisoned, considering he is guarded round the clock by a security ring comprising, besides his own trusted men, agents of ISI, Pakistan’s notorious intelligence agency which wields him as a weapon of jihadi terror against India. “It is a tried and tested cover,” said a source who added that ISI needed to look after the well-being of Dawood – now also on the radar of the US which was instrumental in getting him designated as an international terrorist – to prevent him from squealing.

However, they did not rule out the possibility of a recent hospitalisation at a military base.

Speculation about Dawood’s medical condition gained immense vitality also because of the backdrop. The posts also came in the wake of the intriguing deaths of jihadi terrorists, all of them “persons of interest to India”, in Pakistan. Sources said Pakistan’s intelligence circles remain wary of more “hits” on their assets in the lead-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the need for the “regime in Delhi” to emphasise its “hardcore nationalist” credentials.
Interestingly, social media posts on Dawood’s “grave medical condition” came along with claims of the house arrest of Javed Miandad, Pakistani cricket legend and a close relative of the underworld don.

Pakistan has sheltered Dawood, the mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai blasts, but denies his presence on its territory. The Indian intelligence establishment had confirmed his and Shakeel’s presence in Karachi’s upscale Clifton area but Pakistan has consistently denied harbouring him. Even this time, Pakistani authorities remained silent on the rumours.
A recent chargesheet filed by the National Investigating Agency said Dawood has a second wife named Maizabin, along with three daughters Marukh (married to Junaid, son of Miandad), Mehrin (married) and Maziya (unmarried), and a son Mohin Nawaz (married).

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