NEW DELHI (TIP): After being left red faced over the fiasco on Dawood Ibrahim with Home Minister Rajnath Singh forced to explain in Parliament that his Ministry had no doubt that the don was in Pakistan, the government has decided to ratchet up legal pressure on Pakistan on other most-wanted terrorists.
Senior Home Ministry officials have told ET that a Letter Rogatory (LR) will be sent soon to Pakistan to ask about the “location” of Indian Mujahedeen (IM) top leader Riyaz Bhatkal as India believes he is hiding in Karachi, and “confirmation” of the Pakistani identity of IM’s chief bomb-maker Zia-ur-Rehman alias Waqas who was arrested by the Delhi Police last year. The government has also decided to approach the United Nations Security Council to obtain UN sanctions against the Hizbul Mujahedeen chief Syed Salahuddin, who is based in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK), and declare him an international terrorist under UN Security Council Resolution 1267 of the Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee. India’s case before the UN is that Salahuddin had headed the United Jehad Council which is related to the Al-Qaeda. Dawood was listed by the UN similarly in 2003 for his association with Al-Qaeda.
The LR regarding Riyaz Bhatkal and Waqas will be sent through a court in a case of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) regarding the Dilsukhnagar blasts in Hyderabad in 2013 in which both are named as an accused, ministry officials said.