Washington: Running a criminal syndicate of 5,000 members with strategic alliance with the ISI, LeT and al-Qaeda, the Karachi-headquartered D-Company is an example of "criminal-terrorism" fusion model and poses a threat to the US security interests in South Asia, a Congressional report said.
"Dawood Ibrahim`s D-Company, a 5,000-member criminal
syndicate operating mostly in Pakistan, India, and the United
Arab Emirates, provides an example of the criminal-terrorism
fusion model," the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said
in its latest report.
A research wing of the US Congress, CRS prepares reports
on various issues for the American lawmakers.
The report "International Terrorism and Transnational
Crime: Security Threats, US Policy, and Considerations for
Congress" was released by the CRS yesterday.
The US Department of Treasury designated Ibrahim as a
Specially Designated Global Terrorist in October 2003.
In June 2006, the then US President George W Bush
designated him, as well as his D-Company organisation, as a
significant foreign narcotics trafficker under the Foreign
Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.
Noting that the D-Company is reportedly involved in
several criminal activities, including extortion, smuggling,
narcotics trafficking, and contract killing, the CRS said it
has also reportedly infiltrated the Indian filmmaking
industry, extorting producers, assassinating directors,
distributing movies, and pirating films.
The CRS says D-Company`s evolution into a true
criminal-terrorist group began in response to the destruction
of the Babri Mosque in December 1992 and the subsequent riots.
"Reportedly with assistance from Pakistan government`s
intelligence branch, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency
(ISI), D-Company launched a series of bombing attacks on March
12, 1993, killing 257 people," the report said. Following the
attacks, Ibrahim moved his network`s headquarters to Karachi.
There, D-Company is believed to have deepened its
strategic alliance with the ISI and developed links to
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT), the report noted.
"During this time period, some say D-Company began to
finance LeT`s activities, use its companies to lure recruits
to LeT training camps, and give LeT operatives use of its
smuggling routes and contacts," the CRS said.
"Press accounts have reported that Ibrahim`s network
might have provided a boat to the 10 terrorists who killed 173
people in Mumbai in November 2008," the CRS said in its
56-page report. "The US governments contend that D-Company has
found common cause with al-Qaeda and shares its smuggling
routes with that terrorist group," the report said.
Analysts believe it is unlikely that it will formally
merge with those terrorist groups, the CRS said. But its own
terrorist endeavours, its deep pockets, and its reported
cooperation with LeT and al-Qaeda present a credible threat to
US interests in South Asia, security experts assess.
"Lending his criminal expertise and networks to such
terrorist groups, he is capable of smuggling terrorists across
national borders, trafficking in weapons and drugs,
controlling extortion and protection rackets, and laundering
ill-gotten proceeds, including through the abuse of
traditional value transfer methods, like hawala."
PTI
