Brain behind Gaya, Hyd bombings

Brain behind Gaya, Hyd bombings Deeptiman Tiwary TNN  New Delhi: Looking at Abul Karim Tunda (70) with hennadyed beard and an arm missing, it’s difficult to get a sense of the terror and mayhem he spread across the country in the mid-90s. Over seven years — much before mass-casualty terror strikes became a regular feature in India — Tunda set off blasts at public places enveloping the country in an atmosphere of fear.     He was among the first set of Islamic radicals tapped by ISI-backed outfits such as LeT for anti-India activities. Radicalized after the 1985 riots in Bhiwandi, where he lived, Tunda with Dr Jalees Ansari and Azam Ghauri set up Tanzeem Islahul Muslimeen.     After the Babri demolition, the group came in contact with LeT and it became one of its first sleeper cells outside J&K.     The group executed more than 40 blasts across Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi and elsewhere. Ansari was arrested in 1994. Ghauri moved to Hyderabad triggering blasts and killing Hindutva fundamentalists before being eliminated by police in 2000.     Ghauri trained IM operative Syed Maqbool in bomb making —information that’d interest agencies probing Hyderabad and Bodh Gaya blasts. Maqbool has been linked to both strikes. Delhi Police say Tunda has been training Rohingya Muslims at LeT camps as well.     For all the terror Tunda spread, his tactics were rudimentary. “Having lived in Bhiwandi where he was engaged in dying of clothes, Tunda knows chemicals well,” an officer who has tracked him says. Tunda shared his bombmaking skills with others who executed blasts in Mumbai. Tunda had by then gone underground, but blasts kept occurring across the country. Intelligence agencies learnt that he had come in contact with Azam Cheema, LeT’s India operations chief.     In the late 90s, information trickled in that he had been spotted in a LeT-linked mosque at Dhaka’s Jatra Bari Dhaka. But he fled to Pakistan. Belonging to a pre-RDXmass casualty era, an agency source say, Tunda has outlived his utility for LeT and was probably homesick.