Indian Express, on 7th March 2019, published an article where they allowed Javed Miandad, Dawood Ibrahim’s relative to pontificate to India about ‘peace’.
#ExpressOpinion | War can only add to the woes in the Subcontinent. PMs Modi, Khan should talk peace, writes @ItsJavedMiandad https://t.co/F4fBXWeDLR
— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) March 7, 2019
Javed Miandad is the former captain of the Pakistan cricket team, but most importantly, Miandad is the man who voluntarily agreed to get his son married to Dawood Ibrahim’s daughter.
Dawood Ibrahim is one of the most notorious and dreaded gangsters that India has ever seen. A criminal mobster and drug-dealer of Mumbai, he now resides in Dubai from where he controls his organised crime syndicate, the D-Company. He was designated as a global terrorist in 2003 by India and the United States with a reward of US$25 million for his capture for his believed role in the 1993 Bombay bombings. In 2011, he was named number three on The World’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives by the FBI and Forbes.
Dawood Ibrahim is also believed to have had contacts with al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin-Laden. In the late 1990s, Ibrahim travelled to Afghanistan under the Taliban’s protection. The syndicate has consistently aimed to destabilise the Indian government through riots, terrorism and civil disobedience.
When Javed Miandad’s son and Dawood Ibrahim’s daughter were set to get married, Miandad gave a statement to Khaleej Times where he had no qualms admitting that regardless of the marriage, Dawood and he had been close friends for a very long time.
“Yes, my son Junaid, 21, is getting married soon to Dawood Ibrahim’s daughter, Mahrukh, 23. This is a fact. Why should I deny it?” “Our friendship goes a long way. We have known Dawood Ibrahim and his family for over 20 years now. We are not interested in anything else but our friendship. And that friendship has withstood the test of time. The media should respect that and leave our children alone. My wife Tahira and Dawood’s wife Mehajabeen have been close friends”, Javed Miandad had said.
In fact, these statements by Miandad came in 2005 much after the United States of America designated Dawood as a terrorist supporter in 2003. Javed Miandad was not only giving in to the wishes of the children to marry each other but had no compunction in flaunting his friendship with Dawood that pre-dated the marriage of their children.
The U.S. Treasury Department in 2003 had announced that it is designating Dawood Ibrahim as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224 and will be requesting that the United Nations list him as well. The designation froze any assets belonging to Ibrahim within the U.S. and prohibited transactions with U.S. nationals.
The statement designating Dawood as a global terrorist read:
Dawood Ibrahim, an Indian crime lord, has found common cause with Al Qaida, sharing his smuggling routes with the terror syndicate and funding attacks by Islamic extremists aimed at destabilizing the Indian government. He is wanted in India for the 1993 Bombay Exchange bombings and is known to have financed the activities of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (Army of the Righteous), a group designated by the United States in October 2001 and banned by the Pakistani Government — who also froze their assets — in January 2002.
In a shoddy article, Indian Express allowed Javed Miandad to go ad-nauseam about how India and Pakistan should now shake hands. The under-currents of the article were evident as Miandad harped about how Imran Khan had already taken the first step towards peace by releasing Wing Commander Abhinandan. Javed, however, doesn’t mention that Pakistan tried to bomb India’s military installations and that even after the airstrikes, there has been constant shelling on the Loc and that in Jammu, another grenade attack has now claimed the lives of 2 people and injured 30 others.
One wonders how Indian Express allowed someone like Javed Miandad, who had proclaimed and even flaunted his friendship with a globally designated terrorist even after the 1993 Mumbai Bomb blasts.
Even after the 2016 surgical strikes, Javed Miandad had spewed venom against India. The former Pakistani cricketer and relative of gangster-terrorist Dawood Ibrahim had “slammed” India for carrying out surgical strikes on his soil and claimed that every kid in his country was ready for martyrdom.
According to India Today, Javed Miandad had “hit out” at India with the most amusing rant. Some of it was:
- India is a scared country, it gets intimidated easily.
- I had hit a six against them years ago and they still remember it
- They have to be hit for a six in another field.
- Indians should throw Modi out
- Every Pakistan child ready for martyrdom
While Javed Miandad cannot be blamed for taking this line of argument considering he is a Pakistani and he voluntary got his son hitched to a mass murderer like Dawood who has vowed to destroy India, for a national paper like the Indian Express to carry this article is shocking, to say the least. It is indeed amusing that Indian Express could not see the irony to let a hate monger like Javed Miandad, who is a relative of a mass-murderer like Dawood, pontificate about “peace” and give sermons to India.
Indian Express, however, is a repeat offender and has often taken a line that has gone against India. When terrorist Yakub Menon was hanged to death, Indian Express ran a story headlined ‘And they hanged him’, insinuating that the Indian state hanged Yakum unfairly. A few days ago, Indian Express had also rejected an article asking uncomfortable questions to anti-India ex-IAS officer Shah Faesal and had played down the abduction and murder of Rifleman Aurangzeb at the hands of terrorists.
