In the late 1980s, Abdul Latif was the underworld king of Gujarat. Later, he became Dawood Ibrahim's business manager in the State and was one of the criminal dons to make what now seems to be the seamless transition from organised crime to terrorism. Latif was a suspect in the Mumbai blasts case of 1993; the RDX and other explosive devices for that operation landed, remember, on the Gujarat coast.
In November 1997, Latif was killed in an encounter with the Ahmedabad police.
Many of Latif's cohorts were put under watch. One of them was his driver, apparently responsible for, in one daring move, hiding a huge cache of weapons meant for terrorist groups. This was part of the consignment that had arrived before the Mumbai blasts of 1993. Latif was under surveillance so his driver had hidden the arms in a well in his (the driver's) native village near Ujjain.
The driver eventually faced over 50 cases, including some under the National Security Act. He was arrested, at various stages, by the Gujarat and the Madhya Pradesh police, but avoided conviction. When not facilitating terror networks, he was engaged in extortion rackets in Rajasthan, acting almost certainly on behalf of others. His principals, the police believe, may be linked to terror-funding groups.
The name of Latif's driver was Sohrabuddin Shaikh.
