Centre 'sensible' to not comment on Dawood's location: Security expert

Security expert Alok Bansal on Tuesday said it is very 'sensible' of the Government of India to not comment on underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's whereabouts, because such information to be out in the open would enable Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to shift him to a different location.

"It is quite sensible for the Government of India to say that they do not know where he is. If declare it, the ISI will shift him. It is for the Government of Pakistan to know about his whereabouts," Bansal told ANI here.

"If the intelligence agencies do give Government of India some input on his present location, I think it is not sensible to publically declare where he is, because that would be compromising on intelligence sources and in the past whenever we have given any declared statement on his location, he has been shifted from there," he added.

Earlier in the day, Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary informed the Parliament that Ibrahim's whereabouts are unknown and an extradition process can only be initiated after he is located, contradicting a statement given by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who had assured that the government would take appropriate action to nab the mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.

According to reports, the gangster's last traced location was Karachi and he used to travel to Dubai, but after an Interpol notice was issued against him, he stopped.