Dawood Ibrahim's close aide Chhota Shakeel confirmed that the gangster is alive and healthy in an exclusive conversation with CNN-New18. “Dawood is alive and healthy. Even I was shocked to see this fake news. I met him multiple times yesterday," he said. This confirmation came after reports of Dawood Ibrahim's death started to float in the media. Various social media platforms alleged that the gangster was rushed to hospital as he was poisoned. Social media was flooded with rumours that the notorious 67-year-old don Dawood Ibrahim, who is holed up in Karachi, has been poisoned, and that he is in critical condition in a local hospital.
There was even intense speculation that he was dead. The rumours gained credence with Pakistanis facing a serious outage of internet services. However, sources in Pakistan later revealed that the outage had nothing to do with the don. In fact, it was deliberately engineered by the Pakistani government to sabotage the proposed virtual "jalsa" organised by the 70-year-old Imran Khan's supporters to protest the fast-deepening economic crisis and the injustice being done to the ex-PM, who is being shifted from one jail to another. He is currently lodged in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.Dawood, wanted by the Indian government, among other things, for his key role in masterminding the Mumbai serial bomb blasts of March 1993 and proclaimed a global terrorist by the United Nations and the US State Department, had fled to Dubai in the mid-80s, fearing that he would be killed in a fake encounter by the Mumbai police.Dawood has been facing serious health issues of late, according to a source in Pakistan. His chain-smoking has affected his lungs, and his weakness for the bottle has taken a toll on his liver. He is suffering from acute diabetes. He is fiercely protected round-the-clock by elite commandos supplied by the ISI, which keeps shifting him from one safe house to another in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Quetta.Recently, the Pakistani government listed Dawood and 87 others in its sanction list in order to avoid FATF sanctions.