NIA gets cracking: Detains Dawood aide in Mumbai

The NIA had in February registered an FIR after it was learnt that several of these persons were linked to Dawood

New Delhi, May 09: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) is conducted raids at multiple locations on the associates of underworld don, Dawood Ibrahim.

Raids are being carried out at Parel, Santacruz, Bandra, Borivali and Nagpada. On the radar of the NIA are drug traffickers, realtors and hawala operators linked to Dawood.

The NIA had in February registered an FIR after it was learnt that several of these persons were linked to Dawood and were raising funds to sponsor terror in the country.

During the raids, the NIA detained Salim Fruit at his residence. He is an associate of Dawood Ibrahim.

The NIA also seized incriminating documents during the raid.

For India the top headaches are Dawood Ibrahim and Lashkar-e-Tayiba chief, Hafiz Saeed. Top security officials tell OneIndia that Dawood is a more important person to nab because he provides the finances to the ISI, which in turn is channelised into aiding terror groups.

Dawood has always been a strategic asset for Pakistan and this is the primary reason, why he continues to be sheltered in that country, officials also state.

Dawood Ibrahim who has a 20 million dollar bounty on his head has already been declared a global terrorist by the US. India on the other hand has been sharing plenty of information on Dawood's global financial network and how nearly 40 percent of his money is being used to fund terror.

When the NDA government took over, the very first security briefing dwelled a lot on Dawood. The then Intelligence Bureau chief, Asif Ibrahim said in his first official briefing that terrorism receives a major chunk of its funds through narcotic smuggling via India, which is controlled by Dawood.