India welcomed the US move to designate underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's two top aides Chhota Shakeel and Tiger Memon as key drug traffickers. Official spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs Syed Akbaruddin said it was a reaffirmation of India's stand and asked those countries harbouring them to bring them to justice.

India has been maintaining that all three are in Pakistan and their names are among those who figure in the most wanted list given by New Delhi to Islamabad.

Targeting the “nexus of crime and terrorism in South Asia, the US has designated Chhota Shakeel and Tiger Memon as key drug traffickers and slapped sanctions on them.

The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Shakeel and Memon as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act) for their roles as part of a criminal organisation run by Dawood Ibrahim known as 'D Company'.

Dawood was named as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in October 2003, and in June 2006, he was named as a Significant Foreign Narcotics Trafficker.