US agents asked Asif Hafeez for help

LONDON: American agents asked Pakistani gold trader Muhammad Asif Hafeez to help them with information for a breakthrough on India’s most wanted Dawood Ibrahim, according to court papers.

Muhammad Asif Hafeez’s lawyers have claimed in papers filed before the UK High Court of Justice that American Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents, who met Asif Hafeez in Dubai between 2014 to 2017, asked him about Dawood Ibrahim, Mumbai bombings of 1993, Tora Bora, the Taliban, Karachi businessman Jabir Motiwala and Ibrahim’s current location.

Asif Hafeez told US agents he knew nothing about the Taleben and Afghanistan but confirmed knowing Dawood Ibrahim as both of them were in gold trading in Dubai at one stage and used to watch cricket and sat in adjoining boxes but lost contact after late 90s when Dawood left Dubai for good.

Asif Hafeez, according to court papers, told US agents: “I further confirmed that whilst Dawood Ibrahim was in Dubai, he used to sit in the front row of Bollywood performances and was well known in the industry.

In fact I recall that before any performance started the performers would ask him ‘Ijazzat hai?’ which means ‘do we have permission to begin?’”

The Pakistani national, according to the legal papers, was asked if he knew whether Taliban leader Mullah Omar and Dawood Ibrahim had any connections. When asked about Dawood’s current whereabouts, Asif Hafeez told the US agents that he didn’t know where Dawood Ibrahim currently was.

The DEA agents asked the Lahore-born trader for information about Jabir Motiwala, who they alleged was managing Dawood Ibrahim’s affairs in Dubai. According to court papers, Hafeez told the US agents that Jabir Siddiq was a stockbroker who worked in the stock exchange in Karachi but nothing further.

The two agents then asked Hafeez for Motiwala’s number which he provided to them after obtaining it from his contacts. Asif Hafeez has told the court that the US agents became forceful to him and threatened that if he didn’t give them the specific information that they needed then it would be bad for him and they would in turn “come after me”.

The DEA didn’t reply to email carrying questions about Asif Hafeez’s claims. Jabir Motiwala was arrested in London exactly a year after the arrest of Asif Hafeez in August 2017 from the same area of West London.

Jabir’s case collapsed last month when the US dropped all allegations against him. Asif Hafeez has appealed at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and awaits a decision on the US extradition demand from the UK government. The UK authorities say they arrested Asif Hafeez on 25 August 2017 on the US request of extradition for charges related to import and preparation of Class A drugs.