Abdul Karim Tunda: A drifter with a chequered past

 Even as intelligence sleuths continue to decode the life history of one of India’s most-wanted terrorists, police said hardships at an early age pushed Abdul Karim Tunda towards radicalisation and away from society.

Of his childhood, Tunda revealed that he was born to a poor family within the walled city of Delhi in 1943. Tunda's father died when he was just seven-years-old. After that, Tunda's mother sent him to his uncle Abdul Majid's house in Kithor, Meerut, for further studies, but his uncle got him employed at a factory where wooden items were made.

“Tunda’a uncle never paid him for the laborious physical work at the factory, saying that he was sending the money directly to his mother in Pilkhuwa at Hapur. He made him work for two years without paying a single rupee. When Tunda's mother came to know about this, she took him back to Pilkhuwa,” said a police officer.

Tunda then learnt moulding work and went to Delhi to earn some money, where he lived for some years.  Later, Tunda was advised by someone to go to Mumbai, as the minimum wage for labours was high there as compared with other places. However, he went to Firozabad in UP and learnt the basics of becoming a carpenter.  Thereafter, he moved to several nearby places for work, including Agra, Khurja and Etawah in western UP, before becoming a scrap dealer and cloth merchant, and then running a homoeopathic shop at his home at Pilkhuwa. 

About family members, Tunda told police that he has seven children from three wives. One of his sons had followed in his footsteps and joined the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), and was actively involved in terrorist activity in India. This son was once arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police.

“Abdul Waris, Tunda's third son from his second wife, Mumtaz, was involved in terrorist activity in Jammu and Kashmir, and was arrested by the police and remained in jail for eight years,” said a police officer. Waris was also an active LeT member, and went back to Pakistan after finishing his jail term, added the officer.

Police said his two wives, with children, are living in Pakistan's Lahore.