This is one wedding India's security and intelligence community cannot afford to miss. And, given the deteriorating bi-lateral relation between India and Pakistan, the event assumes greater significance for the country's security and intelligence establishment.
In fact, the authorities would be having a field day as Alishah Parker, nephew of don-turned-terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, is getting married to Ayesha Nagani in Mumbai on Wednesday. Alishah is the youngest son of Dawood's sister Hasina Parker, who passed away in July 2014 following a heart attack.
At the time of this report being filed, preparations are in full swing to ensure the wedding passes off peacefully. The onus is on Iqbal Kaskar, Dawood's brother living in Mumbai, to conduct the ceremony. While the wedding is being planned at a south Mumbai masjid, the reception would take place at Juhu's Tulip Star hotel, a favourite with the family for quite some time.
Insiders said Dawood is keen to "watch" the wedding and the reception "live" through Skype. This might mean that the country's enemy number 1 has a secure online logistic plan in place to bypass the hawk-eyed Indian security officials and their electronic surveillance system.
Alishah's marriage had generated a lot of interest as the last function in the family was the marriage of Danish Parkar, another son of Hasina, in 2004. Hasina organised Dawat-e-Walema at the Anjuman-e-Islam school, opposite CST railway station, then. However, the event is likely to be a low-key one in the face of adverse attention that it is bound to generate, sources said.
Relatives from the Temkar Mohallah, Pakmodia Street and Dimtimkar Street, from where Dawood once operated, are likely to attend the wedding. However, key Dawood aides Tariq Parveen, Haji Amin and Salim Fruit may not attend the wedding, chiefly to evade security eyes. All three shunned a similar bash last year at the same hotel. Dawood's sisters, Farzana and Zaitoon, are nonetheless expected to attend the wedding.
Intelligence officials, this time round, have elaborate plans to keep a close watch on people who attend the wedding. They will also try to ascertain the links the Dawood family fosters with Mumbai's influential elites. For the Mumbai police though, it would be yet another opportunity to make informed deductions about "Dawood's sway" in the city.
