Some Mumbai police officials had "compromised" the Indian government's secret operation to "target" the country's most wanted terrorist, Dawood Ibrahim, former Union home secretary and BJP MP RK Singh has reportedly said.
In an interview to a news channel, Singh said that India was training some members of Chhota Rajan gang at a secret place outside Maharashtra to launch an attack on Dawood.
However, some Mumbai policemen, who were on Dawood's "payroll", arrived at the site of training with arrest warrants for the trainers and foiled the operation, India Today reported.
Singh, however, admitted that his allegations were based on "heard" reports and not on evidence.
"A group was being trained to target Dawood but he had people in Mumbai police on his 'pay roll' who were alerted. The Mumbai police came saying there is a warrant against them. But I cannot say it is confirmed. I have just heard...I don't have evidence," Singh told Aaj Tak.
The Indian government had reportedly launched the operation when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister – i.e. before 2004 – and Singh was a serving IAS officer. The 1975 batch Bihar cadre officer retired as India's home secretary in June 2013 and joined the BJP about six months later.
Singh said that India must carry out an operation similar to the Americans', in which they killed terrorists Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, to take down both Dawood and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed, who are being protected by Pakistan. He even suggested a Myanmar-like attack in Pakistan.
"India must repeat the Myanmar operation in Pakistan," Singh said.
He further claimed that specially-trained private security men, including ex-army men, have been appointed by the ISI for the protection of Dawood in Pakistan, hence, the government needs to take up fight against its enemies instead of sending dossiers to them.
"Nothing will be achieved by handing over dossiers to Pakistan. It is globally recognised as a snake pit. We can't depend on the US to fight India's battles. India has to fight its own enemies," Singh said.
"India must hit back in a way that hurts Pakistan the most... Pakistan believes in a constant war with India. We have the capability to hit back hard. Any dialogue with Pakistan is futile. For a discredited country like Pakistan, dialogue process is an opportunity to regain its credibility and strike parity with India," Singh added.
