Dawood Ibrahim not in Pakistan, says country's Foreign Office spokesperson

Underworld don Dawood Ibrahim is not in Pakistan, the Foreign Office asserted on Thursday, a day after a UK court was informed that the gangster wanted for the deadly coordinated bombings in Mumbai in 1993 is currently in exile in the country.

"Dawood Ibrahim is not in Pakistan," Foreign Office Spokesperson Muhammad Faisal said in response to a question during his weekly press conference here.

During the ongoing extradition trial of 51-year-old Jabir Moti, a "high-ranking member of D-Company", Westminster Magistrates' Court in London on Wednesday heard that Dawood, wanted for coordinated bombings in Mumbai in 1993 that killed more than 200 people, is currently in exile in Pakistan.

"The head of D-Company is Dawood Ibrahim, an Indian Muslim currently in exile in Pakistan. Dawood Ibrahim and his brother and top lieutenant, Anis Ibrahim, have been fugitives from India since 1993, when D-Company was implicated in coordinated bombings in Mumbai that killed more than 200 people," according to excerpts of a US Attorney's affidavit for extradition read out by Moti's barrister, Edward Fitzgerald.

"The present investigation has revealed that Jabir Motiwala is a top lieutenant in D-Company who reports directly to Dawood," he added.

Fitzgerald was trying to establish that his client being linked by the US authorities to Dawood and D-Company would mean he would be subjected to "special administrative measures" (SAMs) at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York, which would involve isolation and put him at the risk of harm due to his suicidal tendencies.

Dawood, who heads a vast and multifaceted illegal business, has emerged as India's most wanted terrorist after the 1993 Mumbai bombings.

According to the US, Dawood maintains close links with terror outfit al-Qaeda. As a result, the US declared him a "global terrorist" and pursued the matter before the United Nations in an attempt to freeze his assets across the world and crack down on his operations.

Dawood's aide Moti faces extradition to the US on charges of money laundering, extortion and conspiracy to import unlawful substances such as heroine.

Moti was arrested by Scotland Yard officers from a London hotel in August 2018 in connection with a US grand jury indictment following an extensive FBI investigation.