'Abdul Karim Tunda was carrying Pakistani passport'

New Delhi, Aug 17: The Delhi Police on Saturday revealed that Syed Abdul Karim alias 'Tunda', a close aide of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim was carrying a Pakistani passport.

The report comes a day after the Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist Tunda, who is allegedly involved in around 40 bomb blast cases across India, was arrested.

While addressing a Press Conference, the Special Commissioner of Delhi Police Special Cell, SN Srivastava said, "He was carrying a Pakistani passport number AC 4413161 issued Jan 23 in the name of Abdul Quddus."

Srivastava also told media that the 70-year-old LeT terrorist had planned to carry out a blast in Delhi ahead of Commonwealth Games in 2010.
He also informed that Tunda is closely associated with Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, who is wanted in India for the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack and Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, a top LeT commander.

Tunda was presented in a Delhi court which sent him to three days' police custody for interrogation.

The Delhi-born, one-handed extremist who was in the list of top 20 terrorists wanted by India, Tunda was arrested yesterday at around 3 pm in Uttarakhand's Banbasa area close to the Nepal border after receiving a tip-off from intelligence agencies about two weeks back.

Tunda escaped to Pakistan in 1998 to act as mentor for a younger generation of Lashkar operatives, financing and organising operations across India.

In January 1994, Tunda fled to Bangladesh capital Dhaka where he started training jehadis in bomb making, police said.

Investigators said Tunda also trained terror operatives in making improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

Five years back, Tunda, then 65, got married for the third time to a 18-year-old girl in Pakistan.

He got the moniker Tunda - Hindi for without a hand - after his left hand got severed in an accident while he was preparing a bomb in 1985 in Mumbai.

OneIndia News

(With IANS inputs)