PTI
NEW DELHI, MAY 11
Under attack over its statement in Parliament that it was not aware about Dawood Ibrahim's whereabouts, the government today asserted that the Mumbai blast mastermind is in Pakistan and it will do everything to bring him to justice. "Whether we have to pursue Pakistan or pressurise it, we will not rest till Dawood Ibrahim is brought back," Home Minister Rajnath Singh said in Lok Sabha and averred that India has maintained pressure on Pakistan at all levels over the issue.
He alleged that Pakistan has "failed" to track him down despite being provided with "overwhelming evidence" about his presence there, based on "credible information".
Singh's assertion came amid Opposition attack over a Home Ministry's reply to a question in Lok Sabha last week that it was not aware about the gangster's location.
He had then sought to deflect the criticism, saying the stand was similar to the one taken by the UPA government in Parliament in May 2013 and signalled a rethink. He had said he will make a statement in Parliament today.
In the statement, Singh said, "India has credible information about his presence in Pakistan... Despite overwhelming documentary and other evidence handed over to Pakistan, Pakistan has failed to locate Dawood Ibrahim and initiate legal process."
India has provided Pakistan the details of his Pakistani passports and reported addresses there from time to time, asking it to locate and hand him over to it.
Noting that a red-corner notice issued by Interpol was pending against Dawood since 1996 and a UN Security Council's special notice against him was also pending since 2006, the Home Minister said Pakistan was bound by international obligations to locate and extradite him.
The Home Minister said, "India continues to pressurise Pakistan to fulfil its international obligations and locate Dawood Ibrahim and other terrorists and hand them over to India."
A row had erupted following a written reply by Minister of State for Home Affairs Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary to a question in Lok Sabha, saying the government was not aware about Dawood's whereabouts, which had triggered a sharp opposition attack on the Narendra Modi government last week.
Jyotiraditya Scindia (Cong) in Congress had accused the Modi dispensation of doing a sudden "U-turn" in the matter in spite of the fact that Dawood continued to be the most wanted fugitive after the 1993 Mumbai blasts.
The Congress Chief Whip said Pakistan was cocking a snook at India in the wake of the U-turn by NDA Government. He recalled that during the election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi used to say that India will pursue Dawood inside Pakistan like the US targetted Osama Bin Laden there.
The government later went into a damage-control mode with Singh telling Parliament that the reply was the same that was given on May 7, 2013 when the UPA was in power.
The name of Dawood, who is wanted in connection with 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, figures in almost all the dossiers that have been handed over to Pakistan since the NDA rule in early 2000.
Dawood, who has been listed as Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the United States for his alleged links with al Qaeda terror group, vanished from Mumbai between 1992-93.
The CBI has alleged that he conspired with the ISI to carry out the serial blasts in Mumbai in which 257 people were killed and property worth Rs 32 crore damaged.
In a major welfare measure for paramilitary jawans, the government has decided that the period of hospitalisation due to injury or disease suffered during anti-Naxal and other operations will be deemed as being ‘on duty’ and full salary will be paid for such duration.
The Union Home Ministry, sources said, accorded its nod in this regard after the paramilitary forces sought a change in the existing rules, which consider a hospitalised trooper as being ‘off duty’.
“The government had approved the demand of the central forces in this regard and, recently, all the forces have also notified these rules, to be implemented in their respective forces like CRPF, BSF, ITBP, SSB, CISF and NSG. This is a morale boosting step for these men and women in combat,” said a senior official who is privy to the development.
Officials in these forces said that due to their full-time deployment in combat zones like Left Wing Extremism-hit areas and insurgency-prone states of the Northeast, “injuries are very regular, (occurring) almost every other day”.
“There are numerous times when troops sustain injuries during routine patrols in LWE-affected states due to improvised explosive device blasts or in ambushes. The hospitalisation period, after this, ranges from a week to a few months and the troopers lose out on their salary despite being on duty. That anomaly has now been rectified,” the official added.
Henceforth, the duration of hospitalisation of a jawan or trooper due to an injury sustained or disease contracted during deployment, will be considered on-duty.
A dearth of majority in the Upper House of Parliament was coming in the way of BJP to bring in a motion and make law for construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, Union Home minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday.
Construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya was among the promises made by BJP in its election manifesto which it had released in the run up to last year’s General elections.
Some other contentious issues like abrogation of Article 370 which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir and enactment of Uniform Civil Code were also promised in the party’s manifesto.
“BJP does not have a majority in Rajya Sabha, so this time it is not possible to bring motion in the Parliament to make law for the construction of Ram temple,” the senior BJP leader said.
He was here to take part in a programme of senior Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Nritya Gopal Das.
When asked if BJP will bring the motion for a Ram temple if it gets a majority in Rajya Sabha in the days to come, Singh said,”It is an imaginary question.”
The ruling party has 45 members in the Upper House and it is unlikely that it will have the numbers during its current tenure. In the House of 243 members, Opposition has at least 132 MPs.
Reacting to a question on underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, Singh said he will speak “some thing on Dawood in a day or two.”
The government was left red-faced for its contradictory reply in Parliament on the whereabouts of Dawood Ibrahim.
Later, minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said the underworld don lives in Pakistan and the Centre would continue to pursue the case very seriously.
