Saturday’s blast had Tunda’s signature

Pathan was accused of recruiting disgruntled riot-affected youth of Gujarat and sending them for terror training abroad.

An expert in manufacturing bombs, Tunda is wanted in 33 cases under the Explosives Substances Act in Delhi and other states. His standard bomb cocktail consists of potassium chlorate mixed with sugar kept in a tight container packed with nails. In this container, amid the potassium chlorate mix, he packs in tiny bottles of homoeopathic medicines, filled with sulphuric acid. As soon as the container is tilted, the acid begins to seep out into the chlorate-sugar mixture. The package begins to emanate smoke and the blast follows.

This is exactly what happened during Saturday’s blast. “Eyewitnesses said smoke emanated from the polythene before it blew up,” said a senior police officer. “Also the fact that Pathan was found to be closely involved cannot really be ignored,” he added.

Also, according to NSG officials, the bomb was crude and made of chemicals. The Joint Commissioner of the Special Cell, Karnal Singh, however said it was too early to comment.

Abdul Karim got the nickname Tunda, after he lost an arm when one of his own bombs burst in his hand.

Born to a lower middle class family in Delhi, he moved to Pilkhuwa near Ghaziabad.

He briefly ran a homeopathic medicine store. After the business failed, he moved to Mumbai’s Mominpura and set up fabric dyeing business.

There, he joined Jamaat Ahl-e-Hadis and later Tanzim Islahul Muslimeen (TIM) or Organisation for the Improvement of Muslims. He also grew close to Laskhar.

Exactly a year after the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition, he executed 43 small bombings in Mumbai and Hyderabad and seven separate explosions on inter-city trains.

His associates were arrested but Tunda escaped to Bangladesh with help of TIM operatives. By 1996, he had established a centre in Dhaka to train Lashkar operatives in bomb-making and rose as a spiritual leader.

In 1999, he was said to have been killed in an encounter in Bangladesh. Then on November 4, 2003, he was reported to be killed in Dhaka in gang warfare.

In 2005, Abdul Razzak Masood, a Lashkar militant arrested by Delhi Police Special Cell, said that he had seen Tunda in Pakistan in December 2003.

Masood had met Tunda in his shop opposite Markaj Taiba main gate at Muridke in Lahore, a place close to the LeT headquarters. He said Tunda has two wives and two sons. The younger one, Shahid, helps him in the perfume business, while the elder son is a LeT activist.

In 2006, he was said to have been arrested in Mombassa in Kenya. Kenyan authorities later said it was not Tunda but a British national.