Accused in '93 blasts detained at Dubai airport

MUMBAI: Gangster Dawood Ibrahim's close aide Yakoob Khan alias Yeda Yakoob, a key accused in the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai, was detained by the Dubai authorities on Monday.
A source said they were verifying if he has been deported to Pakistan-as he was found with a Pakistani passport-or he was still under detention. Yakoob was caught at Dubai airport as soon as he landed there to meet his relatives.Though he was travelling with a Pakistani passport under a fictitious name, he was nabbed on the basis of intelligence, said the source, adding that CBI had also issued a red-corner notice against him.
Yakoob is accused of taking delivery of explosives from Mhasa in Raigad and storing them at his construction site in Thane. It was from there that the RDX was sent to various places including main accused Tiger Memon's house where most bombs were assembled. In the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition,
On March 12, 1993, serial blasts ripped through Mumbai, killing 257 people and injuring more than 700. Yakoob got the sobriquet, Yeda, for his daredevilry and fearlessness. Yakoob's brother Majeed Khan alias M K Builder was shot dead by rival gangster Chhota Rajan in 2001 in Bandra. over communal disputes.
Dawood and his aide Chhota Shakeel, who have influence in UAE, are reportedly trying hard for Yakoob's release. "Dawood, who stays in Karachi, fears that if Yakoob is deported to India, he may tell the officials about his and his aides' presence in Pakistan," which may direct the heat on them," said a senior official.
Sources said Yakoob was caught while he had landed in Dubai to meet some of his relatives. Though he was travelling on a Pakistan passport under a fictitious name, he was detained on the intelligence and on the basis of red corner notice (RCN) issued against him by the Central Bureau of Investigations. Yakoob has got a nick name as Edda for his dare devil act and fearlessness. Yakoob's brother Majeed Khan alias MK builder was shot dead in 2000 by rival Chhota Rajan in 2001 at Bandra following communalism among gangsters.
The news of Yakoob's detention has just come a week after the arrest of another Dawood aide and drug lord Iqbal Memon alias Iqbal Mirchi in London in connection with threatening a businessman. The Indian authorities are still struggling hard to press for his extradition sources said that the chances of getting Mirchi is lean as this time too the police are going to put the same charges what they had put in 1995. In 1995, the UK authorities had rejected Mirchi's deportation.
A senior state police officer said they had heard of Yakoob's detention from unofficial sources and were awaiting an official confirmation from the Indian wing of Interpol. But, according to an underworld source, being detained in Dubai was nothing significant for a gangster as Dawood had huge influence there and, in the past, got his brothers, Anees Ibrahim and the late Noora, released from there.
Another theory is that tired of hiding in Pakistan, Yakoob wants to return to India and so himself staged the "detention".