Abdul Karim 8216;Tunda8217;

Bomb expert for the LeT

The top 8216;bomber8217; of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Abdul Karim alias 8216;Tunda8217; is a resident of Pilakhuwa area in Western UP, where he ran a homeopathic shop in Loharan Mohalla in the 8217;80s. Since then the turn of events through which he came into contact with the terror module are sketchy.

It is known that in the early 8217;80s Tunda was initiated into terrorism by the ISI and he crossed over to Pakistan where he underwent training in making improvised explosive devices.

Later he was accused of being the mastermind of the series of bomb blasts in New Delhi, Panipat, Sonepat, Ludhiana, Kanpur and Varanasi between December 1996 and January 1998.

Tunda is in his late sixties, is wanted in India for 33 criminal cases, 40 blasts in Delhi and neighbouring states that left 21 dead and over 400 injured.

The hunt for Tunda died down in 2000 when Intelligence agencies believed a news item that Tunda had been killed in a blast in Bangladesh.

Tunda returned to the surveillance radar in August 2005 when Abdul Razzak Masood, an alleged LeT chief coordinator in Dubai arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi police, disclosed that Tunda was alive and he had met him in Lahore in December 2003. Abdul also disclosed that Tunda had two wives and two sons.