New Delhi: Years after India claimed that underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was based in Karachi, a senior Pakistani Minister has for the first time admitted his presence in the country and that he had acquired "substantial interests" there, according to media reports.

The statement came after a recent bomb blast at a Karachi business centre - Kawish Crown Plaza, which the Inspector General of Sindh Police (IGP) said was "ostensibly owned by one Ahmed Jamal ... but actually belonged to Dawood Ibrahim," Pakistani journal 'The Herald' said in a report.

"The IGP's statement was backed the same day by the de facto Sindh Home Minister, Aftab Sheikh, who told reporters that the Mumbai mafioso had a 'network from Mumbai to Karachi and was working in both countries'," the report said.

"This was the first public admission from senior government functionaries that the Mumbai crime king, Dawood Ibrahim of the infamous D-company, may have acquired substantial interests in Pakistan's business capital."

The Sindh police suspect "growing friction between two international cartels" to have been behind the blast.

Prior to this, Pakistan had been maintaining that no such person was present or operating in Pakistan "either directly or through his proxies", it said.

The report quoting Pakistani intelligence sources said the CBI had forwarded a detailed report to Pakistan, which said that Dawood had acquired a new identity of Iqbal Seth alias Amer Sahib in that city. Chhota Shakeel was Haji Mohammed, while Tiger Memon was operating as Ahmed Jamil, according to the CBI report.

PTI