Russia believes that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was directly involved in last months terror strikes in Mumbai, according to reports monitored here.
NEW DELHI: Russia believes that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was directly involved in last months terror strikes in Mumbai, according to reports monitored here.
“The inputs testify that infamous regional drug baron Dawood Ibrahim had provided his logistics network to prepare and carry out the Mumbai terror attacks,” Victor Ivanov, director of Russia’s anti-narcotics service was quoted as saying in an interview in the government-controlled, Rossiskaya Gazeta.
“The super profits of the narco-mafia through Afghan heroin trafficking have become a powerful source of financing organised crime and terrorist networks, destabilising the political systems, including in Central Asia and Caucasus,” Ivanov said.
There are also reports quoted by Pakistan president Asif Zardari in an interview to Newsweek that the Russians had tipped off India about an impending attack. Indian officials refused to comment either on Dawood or the tip-off, saying certain things were better not made public until the investigations into the Mumbai tragedy was over.
Combating terror in the aftermath of the Mumbai carnage was discussed threadbare at the two-day meeting of the India-Russia joint working group, which ended here on Wednesday. Officials of the two sides had discussed the origin, timing and execution of the terror plot, but bureaucrats on both sides were tight-lipped about the proceedings.
Besides issuing a joint statement after the talks, there was no interaction with reporters.
A news conference called by the Russians was cancelled at the last moment, because the Indian side did not want a free-for-all news conference on this sensitive issue for now.
In the statement released after the meeting, the two countries noted with concern the spread of narcotics in the region. It is common knowledge that Afghanistan supplies drugs to the entire western world and money from the drug trade goes to Taliban and various warlords. Much of the money from the trade goes into financing terror attacks in the region.
India and Russia agreed that drug trafficking threatens the security of both countries. “The two sides noted that curbing financing of terrorism is a key component of the counter terrorism strategy and agreed to strengthen bilateral interaction in this field. Both sides welcomed the recent signing of an agreement on cooperation between the financial intelligence unit of India and the federal financial monitoring service of the Russian Federation,’’ the joint statement said.
India also wanted to learn from the Russian experience of the tough anti-terror laws that are now in force in the Russian Federation to combat Chechen rebel group which have carried out daring attacks in that country.
g_seema@dnaindia.net
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