OGUN, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- The news of Dawood Ibrahim’s passing in Karachi had caused a stir on the internet.
The story, which went viral on several social media sites, stated that the wanted criminal was poisoned and sent to the hospital. Some users even posted screenshots of what appeared to be the account of Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwar ul Haq Kakar, which mentioned that Dawood had died.
But the message turned out to be fake, with several fact-checkers clarifying that it was not the account of Mr Kakar and there is no confirmation about Dawood.
The viral message read, “The Messiah of humanity, dear to every Pakistani heart, our beloved, His Excellency Dawood Ibrahim passed away due to poisoned by unknown. He breathed his last in a hospital in Karachi. May Allah grant him the highest position in Jannat. Inna Lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un.
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But DFRAC, an independent fact-checking website, said in a post on X that the username in the viral screenshot doesn’t match the official account of Mr Kakar.
It further said that the username in the screenshot has and extra k, and that Mr Kakar shared last post on his X account on December 16.
Dawood was born in 1955 and raised in Mumbai’s Dongri slum (then known as Bombay). Following the 1993 Bombay explosions, he departed India.
A series of bomb bombings that shook Mumbai (then known as Bombay) on March 12, 1993, left over 700 people injured, 257 people dead, and roughly ₹ 27 crore worth of property destroyed. The Maharashtra government requested that the investigation be turned over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
On 16 June, 2017, several defendants, including Mustafa Dossa and Abu Salem, were found guilty in the case. Dawood Ibrahim, a wanted terrorist, is said to have planned the assaults.
NDTV