He joined the D-Company in 1988 under the kingpin Dawood Ibrahim, and was reportedly responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the criminal group.

[4] Prior to joining organized crime, Shakeel ran a dubious travel agency in Dongri, Mumbai.

[5] According to his Interpol criminal profile, Shakeel is 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in) tall, has black hair and eyes, and speaks Hindi, English, and Urdu.

[5] After the attacks, Shakeel worked with Rahim Merchant (alias "Dogla"), a wealthy Pakistani from North Karachi, to create a voice proxy.

[4] Through Merchant, Shakeel brokered deals for the D-Company, conducted extortion activities, and helped run many arms operations on the ISI's behalf.

[8] Authorities suspect that Shakeel was responsible for international drug trafficking operations for D-Company, and worked with Afghan and Colombian suppliers.

In 1997, Shakeel reportedly claimed responsibility for the murder of social activist SM Khalid, the Bombay Bakers Association President, in Dongri.

The narcotics smuggled included heroin and hashish, which were brought from Afghanistan and Thailand and imported illegally into the United States, Western Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa.

As part of this sanction, U.S. citizens were prohibited from engaging in business activities with Shakeel, and his assets under U.S. jurisdiction were also frozen.

Other high-ranking leaders of the D-Company were confused with whose orders to follow, and this infighting created tensions within the criminal group.

[4] In 2016, the police were able to gain possession of a photograph of Shakeel after it was taken during a birthday party of another suspect involved in the Bombay attacks.

[5] In December 2017, Shakeel was reported dead by multiple sources after an audio clip of a man claiming to be Dawood stated that he had died in Karachi, Pakistan on 7 January 2017.

[6] Another source, citing an unnamed Indian intelligence officer based in the U.S., stated that Shakeel died of a heart attack in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

The probe led to the arrest of a German-national who confessed to the Bangkok police that he was sent to Thailand to send the letter on orders from an Indian-national.

Most of Shakeel's alleged associates, Bilal, Mohammed Rashid, Iqbal Salim, Yusuf Raja, and Parvez Khawaja, reportedly left the D-Company after his death.