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Dawood's men promise to hit back

S Hussain in Bombay

"Troubles don't touch us," came the voice over the telephone, disembodied, arrogant, all the way from Karachi. "We create them.''

Chhota Shakeel, gangster Dawood Ibrahim's alter ego, had more to say. Having dealt with the question whether his gang was facing trouble in Pakistan due to the military coup, he had a warning to his foes:

''We are observing the 40-day mourning period of our mother. Our rivals should not interpret it as an act of cowardice,'' Shakeel said.

Shakeel's caution should be seen in the light of Ibrahim's mother Amenabi Ibrahim Kaskar's death in Bombay. The 65-year-old, respected as the 'Amma' [mother] of the clan, had died in September. In her respect, the gang has suspended its criminal activities temporarily.

Recently, the Bombay crime branch sleuths had seized two assault rifles, nine .38 revolvers and eight .9 mm pistols besides 1,000 cartridges from an apartment in Khar, north-west Bombay. The arms, Shakeel went on to say, was stashed away to be used after the chaliswa [the 40-day ritual].

Amenabi Kaskar, who spent her last days in a private nursing home after a chronic illness, is the third member of Dawood Ibrahim's family to die in Bombay after his flight to safer havens in 1984. Ibrahim's father, Hasan Kaskar, a retired head-constable in the city's crime branch, had died in 1989. Ironically, the father had remained an upright cop, never accepting his son's ill-gotten money.

Then, Dawood Ibrahim, who was a rising gangster, had almost made up his mind to surrender so that he could attend the last rites of his father. He was dissuaded as his colleagues felt that it would not serve any purpose. To make up for his absence, Ibrahim had financed a grand funeral ceremony.

In 1992, Dawood Ibrahim's brother-in-law Ibrahim Parkar was shot dead at Nagpada by gangster Arun Gawli's men. The don was, according to his men, much pained at the incident, specially as Parkar's brutal death was for no fault of his but because he happened to be related to Dawood Ibrahim.

His mother's death was the latest in the series. Several acts of charity were done, including feeding the poor and Quran recital, for the salvation of the soul in the Nagpada and Dongri areas of South Bombay, which happens to be the stronghold of the underworld in the city.

The police, for its part, had posted a huge posse of cops outside the fortress-like building of 33, Pakmodia street. However, by doing so they lost an opportunity of netting several members of the gang who would otherwise have turned up for the final rites.

''When Dawood himself could not dare to come, why would his lower rank members? The idea was to avert any incident of bedlam caused by the mourners in the area,'' said a senior police officer.

The Dawood Ibrahim men, according to the police, was planning to retaliate to the growing onslaughts of another gang against their financiers and well-wishers. But now, with the seizure of the arms, they have received a set back.

Besides, 41 of the 77 gangsters killed in encounters so far belong to the Shakeel gang, which has affected it effectiveness severely.

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