Pak terms Dawood arrest report 'absurd'

Pak foreign office says media reports of the underworld don's arrest could be part of a disinformation campaign.

The Pakistan Foreign Office has described as “absurd” reports in a section of the press that wanted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his associates Chhota Shakeel and Tiger Memon had been apprehended in Pakistan.

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“How can somebody who is not in Pakistan be caught here,” Pakistan Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam said by telephone from Islamabad on Tuesday.

In New Delhi, officials said they had no information about the “arrest” of Dawood Ibrahim in Pakistan. According to the officials, the news report could be a part of a disinformation campaign. “It appears to be kite-flying,” they added.

In Mumbai, senior Crime Branch officials categorically denied having received any information about the detention of Dawood Ibrahim and his cronies.

“We have no idea of any such development. There is no official intimation about it. I have seen the reports on the television and read it in newspapers,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Deven Bharati told the Hindustan Times.

A top police official, who preferred anonymity, said that rival don Chotta Rajan was reportedly spreading rumours about Dawood being injured in a Karachi gun-fight or detained forcibly in Quetta.