MUMBAI, July 4:In one swift stroke, the anti-Dawood Ibrahim combine has destroyed one of the strongest bases of the mafia megacorp at Kathmandu by gunning down former Nepali minister for health Mirza Dilshad Beg near Siphal on Monday night.They have also effectively choked off a convenient cross-border conduit for both arms and underworld agents for the Karachi-based Dawood who used the northern pass to facilitate his narcotics trade as well.The 42-year-old Mirza was ambushed and shot dead at 9.30 pm on a lonely road, after his assailants actually set up a meeting with the parliamentarian. Mirza, usually accompanied by a convoy of guards, came alone that night, suggesting that he had no inkling of what was to come. A former Mumbai Crime Branch officer confirms that the assailants, affiliated to the Babloo Srivastava and Chhota Rajan syndicate, had laid a trap.Hailing from Deoria in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, Mirza began his forays into the underworld about two decades ago. The man, who grew innotoriety through car thefts, assault, kidnapping and of course murders, later thought of his antecedents as petty crimes.Mirza's graduation to the big league began after a chance meeting with Dawood in Mumbai in the early eighties, when both were struggling to carve a niche for themselves in India. Besides, Dawood, Mirza also had links with Chhota Rajan, Chhota Shakeel, the brothers Amar and Ashwin Naik and members of the Pathan syndicate. However, he shot to prominence only after his association with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence operatives in India and Nepal. The porous Indo-Nepal border via Raxaul in UP helped him sneak in and out of his home state and into Nepal. From then on, his notoriety grew so much that the UP police announced a reward for his arrest.But the elusive crook found Kathmandu safer than UP. Dawood's reputation of transforming crooks into kings in India also helped him in Nepal. Playing the communal card in the election, Mirza represented the Muslim minority in HinduNepal and won with a thumping majority.He resigned from the Sadbhavana Party, and joined the Rashtriya Prajatantra Party winning two consecutive terms from the Kapilavastu constituency in south-west Kathmandu. Finally, his shady past became his nemesis and began to erode his popularity as a politician. Mumbai's Crime Branch officers say Mirza regularly used his Krishna Nagar mansion to shelter gangsters on the run from Indian enforcement agencies. His residence was also used for other illegal activities including confinement of abductees, drug-trafficking, gun-running and forging of documents. He was so effective that Dawood, whose reach had spread from Dubai to Karachi and Colombo to London, regarded Kathmandu as his strongest base. In fact the mafia don even considered shifting to Kathmandu for a while, following the Gulshan Kumar murder. The Indian government had tried to extradite his lieutenant Abu Salem for the murder and had turned the heat on the UAE government to secure Salem's custody.However, it was Mirza's declining clout which forced him to change his mind, making him opt for the ISI sanctuary in Karachi. Mirza's greed turned him towards gun-running, smuggling arms procured from the Afghan Mujahedins and the ISI, into India. The cache of four AK-56s and hand grenades seized by the Andheri police from Chhota Shakeel gangsters last month were supplied by Mirza's network, police say. Mirza's exploits include an aborted bid on the life of UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh in Nainital. Mirza's murder has also stunned the Mumbai underworld as most fugitives have, at some time or the other, used Mirza's good offices for passage out of the country.
