Noora Kaskar, a name with links to the Mumbai’s underworld, passed away while taking a nap in Karachi, Pakistan, on Monday evening.

Few know that he was Dawood Ibrahim’s younger brother. Still fewer know that he used to write poetry, and that one of his songs made it to a movie. But in the Mumbai Police circles it was known well, that Noora was one underworld character who wrote poetry.

Confirming the death of the 50-year-old Noora, defence lawyer Shyam Keswani, who has appeared in many cases related to the Dawood family, said, “He had lunch at 2 pm at his home in Karachi. He had a habit of taking long naps. When a family member went to wake him up at 5 pm, he had passed away. To my knowledge, he did not have a history of any major illness.” He is survived by his wife and six children.

Many policemen recall that Noora had surfaced first in cases of ‘vasooli’ (a variation of extortion) used to threaten businessmen. Most of the vasooli matters never reached the police station as they were kept under the wraps by the business community. Noora was never seen in the same league as brothers Dawood and Anees, known for bigger crimes, including posing a threat to national security.

In the 1980s when Dawood was rising in the underworld, Noora was building his own network through vasooli in areas like Nagpada, Pydhonie, Dongri and areas around his home at Mohammed Ali.

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