Was Iqbal Kaskar the target of Tuesday night's firing in Mumbai? Is it the return of the infamous gang wars in Mumbai? Not so, if the Mumbai Police is to be believed which claims that it wasn't Kaskar but his driver-cum-boduguard, Arif, who was the target of the shootout because of a personal dispute. Arif had succumbed to his injuries after he was shot last night.
The police, in fact, claim that Kaskar, the brother of fugitive don Dawood Ibrahim, was not even present when gunmen opened fire near a south Mumbai area that killed his driver.
"When the firing incident took place, Iqbal Kaskar was not present at the spot", Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations) Rajkumat Vatkar said.
According to the police, the assailants walked towards the bodyguard and just before opening fire, asked him, "How are you?"
But, highly-placed sources have told NDTV that Kaskar was indeed the target of the shootout and that noted underworld don and rival gangster Chhota Rajan was behind the attack.
The sources add that the conspiracy against Kaskar was hatched in Nepal from where one of the arrested gunmen, Ibra Bahadur Khatri, hails from.
The other accused, 29-year-old Syed Ali, is a resident of Mumbra in the city.
According to the sources, the ammunition used in the firing is similar to what the the Chhota Rajan gang has used in the past.
But, sources in the Mumbai Police, have ruled out the resurgence of gang wars, dismissing the south Mumbai shootout as a one-off incident.
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