Abdul Rashid Hussein alias Rashid Malabari, who was caught from Abu Dhabi, is one of the most dreaded sharpshooters in the Dawood Ibrahim gang. The 48-year-old was born in 1971 to a poor family, who lived in Dongri in south Mumbai.
His father died while he was just four-year-old, and his family moved to Ghatkopar and later to Govandi. Malabari dropped out of school after Class 4 at a municipal school at Shivaji Nagar in Govandi.
A young Malabari worked as a porter at bus depots and help at tea shops. To earn more, he started distributing milk door to door. At a tender age of 13, he opened his own tea shop. Malabari’s got his passport, thanks to his sister Hajira’s husband Ismail, who took him to Dubai where he started working as a salesman for an ice-cream company.
Malabari also doubled up as a mechanic in a garage in Dubai to bail out Ismail who would regularly find himself in jail. Ismail would invariably turn to Malabari for help. Malabari’s stay in Dubai came to a premature end owing to his arrest after he attacked his friend who refused to pay back ₹10,000. He returned to Mumbai in 1990 only to find Ismail in jail.
Ismail was accused for murdering Babasaheb Jadhav. Maladabri did not have money to get Ismail bailed. To avenge Jadhav’s murder, one Javed alias Lambu laid a trap to kill Ismail and asked him to meet at an Andheri restaurant. However, Malabari managed to escape.
He married Zohra in 1992. His family life was again hit after Ismail was arrested in 1994. Financial constraints led to fissures between the brothers. This forced Malabari to move to Kerala with his wife.
His mother brokered peace after six month, and Malabari returned to Mumbai. Malabari used to meet Ismail lodged in Arthur Road jail. In one such meeting with Ismail, he was given the contact number of Chhota Shakeel, who was the operation chief of the Dawood gang. Malabari requested Shakeel for the bail amount. Shakeel went the exta mile: he not only got Ismail bailed but also gave some money to Malabari and his family.
This quid-pro-quo arrangement laid the groundwork for Malabari’s entry into underworld.
First, he started handling hawala money for Shakeel’s gang before graduating to a feared shooter. The first prominent case against Malabari was related to Navi Mumbai builder. On the order of Shakeel, Malabari allegedly fired four bullets at the builder in 1997.
In September 1997, Malabari’s brother Sajid had come to Mumbai from Dubai for a vacation. Chhota Rajan’s henchmen tailed Sajid and brutally killed him at BDD chawl.
The killing of Malabari’s brother became the turning point in his life. He once again left for Kerala and had lived there for a year. During his stay in Kerala, he learnt that his brother-in-law Ismail was also killed by 10 members of the Rajan gang at Vikhroli court.
He became a sworn enemy of Rajan and killed two of the alleged assailants involved in the killing of his brother, at Mangalore railway station.
There were many more to come. Rashid went on to kill Hussain Vastra, attempted to bump off Rajan in Bangkok in 2000 and shot dead Rajan’s most trusted and feared lieutenant Balu Dokre in 2003. He was arrested in 2009 as he plotted to kidnap a businessman and to use the ransom money to kill Varun Gandhi and Pramod Muthalik.
