Tunda once tried to lead revolt against Hafiz Saeed

Tunda once tried to lead revolt against Hafiz Saeed Deeptiman Tiwary TNN  New Delhi: For all his proximity to the top brass in LeT, Abdul Karim Tunda once plotted to unseat its chief Hafiz Saeed. Sources in the security establishment said that due to differences with Saeed and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi in the late 90s, Tunda tried to lead a revolt of the cadres and had to pay the price for it. He was relegated to the sidelines and remained a minor player throughout the 2000s. In fact, after 2002-03, he didn’t even met Saeed.     According to intelligence officials who have tracked him for years, Tunda wielded considerable influence in LeT during the 90s when he single-handedly engineered a series of blasts through various operatives across Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, UP and Punjab. He was instrumental in setting up effective LeT cells outside of Jammu and Kashmir and helped settle at least a dozen Pakistani operatives in India to set up sleeper modules.     “His utility had made him extremely powerful in the outfit and he wielded such influence within the LeT in the 90s that when he developed differences with Saeed and Lakhvi towards the end of the decade, he almost managed a cadre revolt from within,” said an officer from the security establishment. “Post-2001, Tunda was limited to non-operational and peripheral roles in the organization and mainly involved himself in running madrassas, motivational activities and training. In fact, after 2003, he hasn’t even met Saeed even once,” the officer added. Sources said post-9/11, with pan-Islamic terror influencing India and mass casualty terror attacks using deadly explosives such as RDX becoming the norm, Tunda, whose methods were rather rudimentary, had outlived his utility for LeT.