Sayed Abdul Karim, alias Tunda was born in 1943 at Chatta Lal Miya area in Central Delhi’s Dariyaganj area. He was a carpenter at his native village in Bazaar Khurd area in Pilkhuwa in Uttar Pradesh‘s Ghaziabad District. He married 3 Times, and has 7 children. Abdul Karim married an 18-year old girl, at the age of 65 in Pakistan.
Sayed Abdul Karim got is name ‘Tunda’ by loosing his left hand while making a Bomb in 1985 in Mumbai, Maharashtra. He stayed in Pakistan where he is known to have imparted training on the fabrication of IED and other explosives to mujahids so that they can do Jihad India.
Abdul Karim Tunda was in constant touch with terrorist organization like, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Indian Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed, and Babbar Khalsa during his stay in Pakistan. He also used to met terrorist like Hafiz Saeed, Maulana Masood Azhar, Zakir-ur-Rehmaan Lakhvi, Dawood Ibrahim and other most wanted terrorists.
Indian foreign Intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing was kept an eye on him for 20 years and Finally arrested him from the Nepal border, with a Pakistani passport. Reposts states that he wants to come back to India. But the question arises that why he wanted to come back to India?
Ahl-i-Hadith moment in North India
In 80s, Ahl-i-Hadit Moment was a its peak and was sperading in India by the funding from Saudi Arab. In Maharashtra, Mumbai was its main epi-center. Ever Friday, religious meetings were organized and the speakers used to called to motivate the youth to take raise the voice against the threat to Islam.
Sayed Abdul Karim was one of the eminent speaker. He gain fame amongst youth the in North India for his Hate speech. Abdul Karim used feel proud while narrating his story of becoming a ‘Tunda’. In 1984 riots, Abdul Karim lost is family member and decided to take revenge by implement Sharia law in India.
He starts learning how to make bombs and used to do experiments with different chemicals. During one of his experiment, he lost his one hand in explosion, from that day he recognized as “Tunda”. One day he was delivering a speech in a mosque of Mominpura of Nagpur, a man got inspired from him. His name was Dr. Jalees Ansari aka “Dr. Bomb”. Eventually they both started working together.
Journey to Pakistan
Jalees Ansari blasted more than 40 Blasts in Mumbai, and was planning to execute a blast in 26 January, Republic day pared, in New Delhi. But an officer of Intelligence bureau arrest him and make his plan fail. During Interrogation, Dr. Jalees Ansari mentioned his relations with Sayed Abdul Karim Tunda.
Dr. Jalees Ansari stated that Abdul Karim Tunda went to Pakistan many times and there he learnt to make bombs. He was in constant touch with Pakistani Intelligence Agency ‘ISI’ Inter-service Intelligence and Lashkar-e-Toiba. These organization are funding Tunda, and in 1999 he met with Hafiz Saeed also.
Tunda has 2 major work in India, one was to radicalized the Muslim youth and motivate them to Join Lashkar-e-Toiba. Second major was to traind these youth in bomb making and execute serial blast. Dr. Ansari also mention that Tunda was the first Bomb expert of LeT in India.
Indian agencies prepared all reports and terror timeline on the basis of Dr. Jalees Ansari’s Statements. Karim Tunda was accused of 33 cases based on these reports. Out of 33 cases, 22 were bomb blast cases and that were executed in Delhi and near by area.
In 1997 there were blasts in NCR and the intensity of these blasts low because the motive behind these blasts was to create terror among the people of India. These blasts caused death of 20 people and left 400 people Injured. The main accused of these blasts was Sayed Abdul Karim Tunda.
The Arrest
Indian agencies were now in search of Tunda, but he was missing because Tunda had fled to Pakistan. When Jalees Ansari was Arrested, ISI took Tunda to Pakistan from Nepal in 1994. He was living under the protection of Jamat-ul-Dawa.
R&AW activated his assets in Karachi and instructed to provide reports of Tunda on regular basis. One of these report informed agencies that Tunda is living on a fake passport and used to travel Saudi Arab, Dubai and Bangladesh on it. But he was doing these travelling under the protection umbrella of ISI and due to this, it was very difficult to get the exact details.
14 years after Tunda’s departure, 26/11 Mumbai attacks take place in which the Indian government hands over the names of 20 terrorists to Pakistan, one of which was Tunda’s name. Like every time, Pakistan again refused to give these terrorist to India nor they took any action against them.
After few years, Tunda old age was becoming a liability on Pakistani agencies and ISI, because the type of Bomb he used to make were getting outdated. Now, terrorist were using high technology bombs. Tunda’s importance was decreasing in Pakistan.
Reports say that Tunda was humiliated and had to endure insults every day. Because they considered him a second class Muslim, as he was born in India. Due to this daily humiliation, he decided to came back to India. He want to spend his last days in Pilkhuwa.
R&AW got Intel that Tunda will first go to Dubai then Via Nepal he will try to enter Gorakhpur from where the will go to Pilkhuwa. After this, R&AW and Delhi Police’s special Cell conducted a meeting and planned to arrest a meeting. He could have been arrested in Dubai but, this could lead to a diplomatic war against Dubai. So, agencies decided to Arrest him from Nepal Border. On 6th August 2013 he left for Dubai and on 16th August 2013, at 3:00 PM he reached at Nepal’s Banwasa Border and got arrested.
During arrest, agencies recovered a Pakistani passport and number was mentioned AC4413161 and it was issued on 23 January 2013.
Conclusion
After all these reports and evidences, Sayed Abdul Karim aka ‘Tunda’ is acquitted from TADA Court. Now the question arises is, why agencies were not able to gather strong evidences against him? and why they kept him arrested for so long?
Whether Tunda is a criminal or not, whether he planned bomb blast or not, eventually it causes loss to the Nation and civilians who have nothing to do with terrorism and International Political agendas.
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