Son of Dawood Ibrahim’s sharpshooter among 9 arrested for alleged links with ISIS

Mohammed Mazhar Shaikh, who worked as a computer engineer in Bhiwandi, is the son of Rashid Hussain, also known as Rashid Malabari and nicknamed “Double”. Shaikh’s younger brother Azhar confirmed their father’s identity.

One of the nine arrested for alleged links with the ISIS is the son of a gangster and dreaded sharpshooter who allegedly worked with gangsters Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel. Mohammed Mazhar Shaikh, who worked as a computer engineer in Bhiwandi, is the son of Rashid Hussain, also known as Rashid Malabari and nicknamed “Double”. Shaikh’s younger brother Azhar confirmed their father’s identity and said, “My family has not been in touch with my father for five to six years.”

File photo of Dawood Ibrahim (HT File)

Hussain, who is now 48 years old, is among the few sharpshooters nurtured by Chota Shakeel in his heydays. “Rashid was last known to be in Hong Kong and he had almost gone bankrupt, which forced him back to India,” said an officer, requesting anonymity. Husain now lives in Mangalore and has his own gang. He is wanted for the 2015 murder of industrialist Suresh Redekar’s son and in a 2017 extortion case.

Hussain is believed to have won Shakeel’s favour in 1998 when he and Shaikh Mastan killed two associates of rival gangster Chhota Rajan’s trusted lieutenant, Sadhu Shetty. In 2000, Hussain was allegedly part of a shootout that left Rajan with three bullets in his abdomen, and killed Rajan’s right-hand man Rohit Verma, alias Michael D’Souza, and his wife. He is suspected of killing Rajan’s aide Balu Dokre in 2005, in Kuala Lumpur.

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