New Delhi: The NDA government is likely to put a lid to the controversy over the whereabouts of India’s most wanted Dawood Ibrahim as early as Friday.
Home minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said he will soon give a statement in Parliament on the whereabouts of India’s most wanted Dawood Ibrahim.
“There is no confusion on Dawood. We will try to clarify tomorrow, if not, then on Monday in Parliament,” he said.
Singh is not only expected to reiterate India's stand that Dawood has taken shelter in Pakistan, it is also being speculated that the home minister may put the Opposition on the backfoot reminding it that a similar reply was given during the UPA regime by the then minister of state for home M. Ramachandran in Parliament in 2013.
Singh’s clarification on the issue comes two days after a massive row erupted over the government's statement in Parliament that it had no idea about Dawood's location, which Pakistan is now using to its advantage to vindicate its stand on the issue. India has accused Pakistan of sheltering Dawood and even extending state support to him to carry out anti-india activities.
Hours after the controversy broke out following minister of state for Home Haribhai Chaudhary’s written reply in Lok Sabha earlier this week stating that the government was not aware of the location of the fugitive, his colleague and minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said that Dawood was in Pakistan and India has been demanding his deportation from that country.
The issue had rocked Parliament on Wednesday with Congress launching a tirade against the NDA government for the statement, which was at variance with the country’s consistent stand that Dawood was in Pakistan.
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad had said the NDA government had tarnished India’s image by saying it did not know Dawood’s location despite repeating several times that he was in Pakistan.
“Our intelligence agencies, which work the world over, also know about his residence and location...Pakistan government has been asked to hand him over to India so that action could be taken. We expect the same for this government also,” Azad said.
Several other members including Ritabrata Banerjee, Tapan Kumar Sen, Sitaram Yechury (all CPI-M) and Pavan Kumar Verma (JD-U) had sought a statement by the Home Minister on the issue.
