NEW DELHI:
Abdul Karim Tunda, an alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorist arrested by the Indian police for plotting several terrorist attacks owes his expertise in explosives to a ‘chooran walah’.
His attraction towards incendiary material started in his childhood while he was in school and keenly observed a ‘chooran walah’ doing tricks such as cracker-type fire and explosion, using potash, sugar and acid, police said after questioning him for a day.
“When he was aged 12, Tunda observed a ‘chooran walah’ sprinkling acid on a mixture of potash and sugar to produce fire. He developed this principle to make bombs,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Madan Oberoi told a press conference.
Tunda, 70, used locally available materials like urea, nitric acid, potassium chloride, nitrobenzene and sugar to make bombs. His left hand was blown off while making a bomb in 1985 in Mumbai, after which he got the nickname ‘Tunda’ which means one-handed man.
The police said that after becoming a radicalised jihadi, Tunda started training youths. “He has been training young indoctrinated radicals to make bombs for the last 28 years,” said Oberoi. Investigators also said that Tunda also trained terror operatives in making improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

In Mumbai, the Delhi-born, class 7 dropout joined Jalees Ansari to form a new group Tanzeem Islah ul-Muslimeen (an armed organisation aiming to work for the Muslim community).
Investigators said that in 1993, Tunda and Ansari had carried out a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai. Ansari was arrested in January 1994 and after some time fled to the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka where he started training jihadis in bomb-making.
“He has a good network in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. He has relations with terror organisations, including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed, Indian Mujahideen, Babbar Khalsa International and underworld Don Dawood Ibrahim,” said Oberoi.
Tunda was connected with BKI chief Wadhawa Singh, who used Tunda’s network in 2010 to smuggle a consignment of explosives into India. Tunda had an excellent network of operatives through which he sent men and material into India. He has also been sending explosives and fake Indian currency to India, Oberai said, adding that one of his destructive plans made at the behest of the BKI in 2010 was foiled.

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