Dawood Ibrahim lives in Pakistan but will never be handed over to India, says P Chidambaram

As per the sting, Dawood lives at D-13, Block 4, Clifton, Karachi.

New Delhi: In the wake of a sting operation by an Indian news channel that claimed to have proved India's most wanted Dawood Ibrahim lives in the posh Clifton area of Karachi, former home minister P Chidambaram has said that Pakistan will never hand over the underworld don to India.

As per the sting conducted by CNN-News18, Dawood lives at D-13, Block 4, Clifton, Karachi.

"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," the channel Friday quoted Chidambaram as saying.

Chidambaram said it was not the first time that whereabouts of Dawood had been established.

But, Pakistan has always been in denial, the senior Congress leader added.

"The whole world knows that Dawood Ibrahim has an address in Pakistan. In fact, we have shared it with the Pakistan government. They have of course denied it. Many people have confirmed that this is the house in which he stays. He stays between Pakistan and Dubai," Chidambaram said, as per CNN-News18.

"You think they are going to put him on a platter and hand him over to you? This is not a failure of any Indian government. The problem is with Pakistan. No Pakistan government is going to admit that Dawood has sought refuge in their country," he added.

The channel reportedly has used two Pakhtun men whose "names were withheld for safety reasons" to identify Dawood's Karachi-based residence with address bungalow No. D-13 Block 4 Clifton.

The location matches with one of the five addresses mentioned by India in its dossier to Pakistan.

The channel claimed to have checked all five addresses of Dawood mentioned in India's dossier to Pakistan, "Only one of the addresses in Karachi, D-13, Block 4, Clifton, was in a high security zone," it said in a statement.

"Starting at Clifton Marquee, a banquet hall named after the affluent Karachi locality where Dawood lives, the CNN-News18 team stopped every 100 metres, asking about Dawood Ibrahim's house. All those asked pointed to the same address D-13 Block 4 Clifton," the channel said in the statement.

"They (two Pakhtun men) made four rounds separately from different directions and spotted the house of Dawood Ibrahim. During the third round of recce, they checked about Dawood Ibrahim from a streetside stall," the statement added.

The news channel also claimed to have spoken to police officers in Karachi and the security guard at Dawood's mansion, "all of whom confirmed that Dawood has been living in Clifton".

The channel asserted that its "evidence is proof of how Pakistan has sheltered India's most wanted terrorist".

"CNN-News18 investigation reveals that Dawood's presence in Karachi is common knowledge, which contradicts the constant denial by a series of governments in Pakistan of Dawood's base there," the channel said.

Dawood had masterminded the 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai (erstwhile Bombay) in which 257 people were killed and hundreds injured.