Peddler inspired Tunda to make bombs on his own

Ultra wanted to avenge deaths of kin, friends who died in '85 riots

Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operator Abdul Karim Tunda, known as an improvised explosive device (IED) expert for terror organisations, learnt to make bombs on his own around 28-years-ago at his home town of Pilkhuwa.

“He had no mentor who taught him to make bombs, unlike other terrorists. He learnt on his own,” said a senior police officer.

He reportedly started making bombs to avenge the deaths of his close relatives and friends who died in the 1985 communal riots at Bhiwandi in Mumbai.

However, when asked how he came to know about bomb-making, Tunda told interrogators about a man selling churan (digestive powder) used to visit his town Pilkhuwa.

Tunda, then around 12 years old, used to watch other children light fires by mixing a few ingredients, including sugar and some white materials.  The purpose of making the fire was to lure the children into buying churan.

“But Tunda was very inquisitive about the fire ignited by the churan-seller, as was the whole group of kids,” said the officer. Tunda recounted that he found out within a year how the churan-seller created the fire. He learnt that the man used to mix “safedi powder” (Potash), sugar and acid to ignite the fire, said the officer.

After witnessing communal riots at Bhiwandi when he was in Mumbai for some trade and hearing about the Gujarat riots during the same period, he became hardened. Finding out that a few of his friends and close relatives were killed in the riots, he wanted to take revenge. So he turned to bomb-making and started experimenting with the tricks he learnt in childhood. He then discovered the use of sulphuric acid and newspapers in making bombs.

In Mumbai, Tunda met and befriended local resident Dr Jalees Ansari, who also helped him make bombs.

 They constituted their own tanzeem, called “Tanzeem Islah-ul-Muslimeen” — Islamic Armed Organisation or Organisation for the Improvement of Muslims. Another top LeT militant, Azam Ghouri, had joined the tanzeem floated by Ahl-e-Hadis to avenge the Babri Masjid demolition incident.

Tunda and his associate Ansari , in 1993, set off a series of explosions in Mumbai and Hyderabad and seven separate bomb blasts on trains. After Ansari’s arrest in January 1994, Tunda fled to Dhaka in Bangladesh and started teaching bomb-making skills.