Despite this, Dawood played an active role in organising the referendum campaign of Musharraf in Karachi in April,2002,and in bringing voters to the polling booths in trucks to vote for Musharraf.

The UAE authorities announced on December 8, 2002, the arrest (on December 3) of Anees Ibrahim in Dubai, when he arrived there from Karachi travelling under a Pakistani passport. The Government of India immediately made a formal request to the UAE authorities for his extradition and sent to them the necessary papers in this regard. To its surprise, New Delhi found that instead of acting on its request, the UAE authorities had him released on bail and sent back to Karachi without even the courtesy of informing the Govt. of India. Pakistan, as before, continues to deny that he is in Pakistani territory or that he travelled to Dubai with a Pakistani passport.

The blatant failure of the UAE authorities to extend the necessary legal assistance to India in bringing to trial a terrorist involved in the killing of about 250 innocent civilians through explosions in March,1993, stands in marked contrast to their co-operation in February this year in arresting and handing over to India Aftab Ansari,another Pakistan-based mafia leader-cum-terrorist, wanted, amongst other cases, for his suspected involvement in the attack on the security personnel outside the American Information Centre in Kolkatta on January 2,.2002.

Aftab Ansari, who also came out of jail, travelled to Pakistan via Dubai and resumed contact with Omar Sheikh. The two started acting in tandem---Aftab Ansari and his gang indulging in kidnapping for ransom and sharing the proceeds with Omar Sheikh and acting as surrogates for Omar Sheikh's terrorist operations in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and other parts of India and Omar helping Aftab Ansari in securing a Pakistani passport under a different name and in acquiring property in Pakistan with his share of the extortion/ransom proceeds.

One of the terrorist operations mounted by Aftab Ansari, at the instance of Omar Sheikh, in Indian territory was the attack on the security personnel guarding the American Centre in Kolkata (Calcutta) on January 22,2002.Aftab Ansari was subsequently arrested by the Dubai authorities while trying to fly to Karachi and handed over to India. Omar Sheikh has already been convicted in Pakistan for his involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Daniel Pearl, the American journalist of the "Wall Street Journal, and sentenced to death. His appeal against the sentence has been proceeding slowly.
In the meanwhile, the six-party pro-Taliban and pro-Osama religious coalition, which has since come to power in the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Balochistan after the recent elections on October 10,2002, has mounted a campaign for his release from jail.

Earlier, describing the interrogation of Omar Sheikh by the Karachi Police, the "News", the prestigious daily of Islamabad, reported as follows on February 18, 2002: "Claiming that his "brothers" were making their presence felt and will continue to do so "on every inch of Indian landscape", Omar has shocked his investigators by narrating his role and that of his "Jihadi colleagues", in the bomb explosion outside state parliament building in Srinagar in October last and shooting incidents in the compound of Indian parliament in New Delhi and outside the American Centre building in Kolkata in December and January last.