Takla, against whom a Red Corner Notice was issued in 1995, had fled from India after the 1993 Mumbai blasts.
Farooq Takla Arrested : Dawood Ibrahim’s aide Yasin Mansoor Mohamed Farooq, alias Farooq Takla, wanted in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, was Thursday sent to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody till March 19 by a Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court in Mumbai. He was arrested at an immigration counter at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Thursday morning.
The Mumbai blast of March 12, 1993, resulted in 257 fatalities and over 700 were injured. The attacks were planned by Dawood Ibrahim, India’s ‘most wanted’ fugitive, who also has his name prominently figuring on the ‘most wanted’ lists of the US and the Interpol.
Who is Farooq Takla and why is he wanted
Farooq Takla’s birth name, according to the Interpol Red Corner Notice issued against him, is Yasin Mansoor Mohamed Farooq. Takla was born in Mumbai on February 17, 1961.
According to the Interpol notice, he is described as being of a “flabby build”. He has “protruding eyes” that are set in an “oval face” and he moves with a limp following a fracture in his left leg.
Officials said 57-year-old Takla used to facilitate the travel of men from Dubai to Karachi without immigration checks, for their training in making bombs and use of sophisticated weapons.
Farooq used to send men from Dubai to Karachi and back with the help of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, claimed Suresh Walishetty, a retired assistant commissioner of police, who was one of the investigating officers in the serial blasts case.
Because of this, investigators of Mumbai police were not able to collect evidence of the movement of men from Dubai to Karachi for the training purpose, he said.
He was a hawala operator in the Gulf since the early 1990s and had not taken shelter in Pakistan, like his mentor Dawood, a security official said.
The gangster had left Mumbai after a bitter rivalry with the Arun Gawli gang.
In September 1992, Shailesh Haldankar of the Gawli gang was killed by the Dawood group while he was recuperating in J J hospital. It was allegedly done to revenge the killing of Dawood’s brother-in-law Ibrahim Parkar, who was killed near his residence in 1992 allegedly by two members of the Gawli gang.
Takla was a key facilitator for stay and opening businesses for all the 1993 Mumbai blasts accused, who had left India before and after the attacks in the metropolis, the official said.
While Dawood and his family, another Mumbai blasts accused Tiger Memon and his family had left Dubai after a few years and taken shelter in Pakistan, Takla continued to live in the Gulf with his ever-increasing ‘hawala’ trading, another official said.
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