Lashkar ‘bomb expert’ Abdul Karim Tunda held

Home Ministry sources said Tunda is in the list of 50 most wanted terrorists,handed over to Pakistan after the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. He is also suspected to be involved in raising funds for the terror group in the Middle East,forging ties with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s network.

A resident of Pilkhuwa,near Ghaziabad,Tunda was reported to be among the first to set up an LeT module in the Indian hinterland. He was allegedly responsible for a series of blasts,starting with the 1993 Mumbai train blasts and then the spate of attacks in1996-1997 using pencil batteries as explosives. That was the first time when alerts went out about transistor bombs,toys and such material.

Before 1993,he was reportedly arrested by the Delhi Police in a robbery case.

In the recent past,Tunda is believed to have been involved in scouting for young talent to join the world of jihad and motivating them through long sermons. This work took him to several countries like Saudi Arabia,UAE,Bangladesh and Nepal where young low-income Muslim youth could be easily tapped.

He was also allegedly involved in planning some key attacks. According to the Delhi Police,his last major attempt was an attack during the Commonwealth Games in 2010,using “an elaborate network of human traffickers and fake Indian currency couriers from Bangladesh”. However,the plan reportedly failed after some of his accomplices were arrested. Tunda is reported to have told interrogators that two men he trained for the attack were arrested by the Pakistan police for some offence before the plan could be executed.

Delhi Police sources claimed that Tunda was possibly scouting for youth to carry out a terror strike in the capital,on the directions of LeT chief Hafiz Mohammed Saeed. Although he has denied any contact with the Bhatkal brothers of the Indian Mujahideen,Tunda has reportedly admitted that he was very close to top IM operative Amir Reza Khan.

Tunda was allegedly caught with a recently renewed Pakistani passport (AC 4413161),using the name Abdul Quddus,and wads of Indian,Pakistani and Nepalese currency. Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) S N Srivastava said: “He was arrested on the Bansawa-Mahendernagar border with Nepal at 3 pm on August 16 and brought to Delhi by road. He was carrying a Pakistani passport issued on January 23,2013.”

Born in 1943 in Chatta Lal Miya in Daryaganj,Tunda,the son of a metal worker,got the nickname because of his amputated left arm — a result of a bomb-making accident. Sources said Tunda is also called “Hakimji” nowadays.

Tunda’s story started about three decades ago,when he moved to Mumbai to set up a dyeing fabric business in 1985,but ended up deeply affected by the communal riots he witnessed in Bhiwandi. He is reported to have befriended one Dr Jalees Ansari (arrested by CBI for the 1993 Mumbai train blasts),and the duo started “Tanzeem Islah-ul Muslimeen” (TIM) to help riot-affected Muslims. Ansari used to deliver sermons on the communal riots of Assam (1982) and Meerut (1982-83).

Other top LeT militants like Azam Ghouri and Abu Masood,who used to visit Al-e-Hadees mosque in Mominpura,also joined the outfit. In 1993,during the first anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition,Tunda and Ansari allegedly scripted the serial train blasts where the targets were high-profile trains like the Rajdhani Express. Ansari was later arrested but Tunda managed to escape,first to Bangladesh and then to Pakistan. In 1996,when the CBI took over the investigations,a red corner notice was issued against him. Despite this,he reportedly travelled to Afghanistan and even returned to India from Dhaka in the same year.

Having trained in explosives during this period,Tunda then allegedly masterminded 42 blasts across various states including Delhi from 1996 to 1998. One of the biggest explosions took place in a crowded bus at Punjabi Bagh,Delhi,in December 1997. Such blasts using pencil batteries were repeated in Panipat,Sonepat,Ludhiana,Kanpur and Varanasi. Tunda later managed to flee India again.

Having eluded Indian sleuths for years,Tunda was even presumed dead in 2000. Later,some reports said he had been caught in Kenya,all of which proved wrong. In 2005,Abdul Razzaq Masood,another LeT terrorist who was nabbed and later committed suicide here,mentioned during his interrogation that Tunda was in Muridke,30 km from Lahore,running a ittar (perfume) shop opposite the LeT headquarters.

Tunda reportedly told interrogators that he was running a madrasa in Karachi,and had recently bought a plot of land for another madrasa. He is reported to have developed close ties with LeT’s Hafiz Saeed and the now jailed operations chief Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi. He is also alleged to be involved in a fake Indian currency syndicate,along with Dawood aide Iqbal Kana.

Tunda is reported to have told officials that Saeed helped him relocate his two wives and children to Pakistan,soon after his name cropped up in the blasts probe. He was reportedly told to contact a man in Bangladesh who helped his two wives and children enter the country and then flee to Pakistan.

At the age of 60,Tunda is reported to have married a teenaged girl. His three wives and seven children are believed to be living in Pakistan,where he owns two houses — one in Lahore and the other in Karachi. According to sources,Tunda dealt in paints and also worked as a real estate agent when he first went to Pakistan.

According to the dossier with Indian agencies,Tunda is wanted in 33 criminal cases and is alleged to have been involved in 40 blasts across the the country. His arrest is likely to reveal the details of the inner workings of Lashkar and Indian Mujahideen,as Tunda is believed to be closely associated with the top jihadi leadership behind these groups.