India Rebuts UN Report Calling D-Company India-Based
India says Dawood Ibrahim fled the country long before his 2003 UN sanctions listing.
New Delhi: India on Thursday criticised a United Nations report for describing fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company as an "India-based" criminal organisation, calling the description factually inaccurate.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly's Third Committee in New York, Raghoo Puri, first secretary at India's Permanent Mission to the UN, questioned the account presented by UN special rapporteur Ben Saul on human rights and counter-terrorism.
Puri said Dawood Ibrahim had fled India long before his inclusion in the UN sanctions list in 2003 for links with al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. He pointed out that the gangster had been wanted in India in connection with terror attacks dating back to 1993.
"This organisation (D Company) and its listed leader, Dawood Ibrahim, has been wanted in India for terror attacks since 1993. This individual fled India much before the 2003 listing, and it was during this period, from outside our country, that he was listed for being associated with al-Qaida and with Osama bin Laden," he said.
Referring to the UN listing, Puri said Dawood resided in the same country where bin Laden was found and killed, an apparent reference to Pakistan.
The Indian diplomat also rejected Pakistan's remarks on Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as "pure propaganda made for very narrow political gains".
"It seems to have become fashionable for sponsors of terror to use human rights and the framework of counter-terrorism to justify their misdeeds," he said.
"Human rights framework cannot be the refuge of the perpetrators of terror and those who propagate radicalisation and extremism. Terrorism can never be justified," Puri added.