Musharraf hints at Dawood's presence in Pak, asks why should we help India

Lahore: Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf has hinted that fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, the key accused in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, is in Karachi.

In an interview with a Pakistani news channel, Musharraf said, "India has been accusing Pakistan for long. Why should we now become good and assist them? I don't know where Dawood is. He must be here, somewhere. India has been killing Muslims and Dawood Ibrahim has been reacting," giving a clear indication that the wanted criminal might be putting up in Pakistan.

Pakistan has consistently denied about Dawood residing there, despite India maintaining that that he indeed lives in a palatial house in Karachi. For the last 10 years, New Delhi has sent several dossiers to Islamabad in this regard, naming Ibrahim as the accused in the Mumbai blasts case.

India had earlier also accused Pakistan of giving shelter to Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden and a team of the United States Navy, SEALs, in a special operation, killed him on May 2, 2011.

Musharraf, when asked about Pakistan's consistent denial about Bin Laden's erstwhile presence in their country, said, "The issue is we have human intelligence. When Osama was killed, nobody knew that he was Osama and was staying there as people thought of him as a drug dealer."

"Even I have doubt that he was living in Abbotabad continuously for five years," he added.