Cops of 5 states eager to interrogate Tunda

A day after Punjab Police questioned Lashkar-e-Taiba bomb expert Abdul Karim Tunda, Delhi Police on Thursday said they have also been approached by their counterparts in several states seeking cooperation to grill the suspect over terror activities across the country.

According to a Delhi Police officer, police of Haryana, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are eager to question Tunda — mastermind of over 40 bombings in the country in the 1990s.

Sources said a team of Haryana Police is already in the Capital in connection with serial bomb blasts in Sonipat in 1996. Tunda was declared a proclaimed offender by a sessions court in 1998.

One of the arrested accused in the case, Mohammad Amir Khan, told police that he had met Tunda in Pakistan from where he had travelled with him to Bangladesh and other places, and had learnt skills in planting bombs. The accused were also involved in blasts in Rohtak and Panipat.

On the other hand, Andhra Pradesh Police are pinning their hopes on Tunda to crack the August 25, 2007 Hyderabad bombings and the recent Dilsuknagar terror strike.

Maharashtra Police plans to question Tunda for being close to Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. According to sources, he is also associated with Mumbai underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Tunda is believed to have turned a radical after one of his cousins was burnt alive during communal riots in Maharashtra’s Bhiwandi in 1980s.

He, however, came on the police radar after the Mumbai serial bombings in 1993. It is suspected that before the bombings, he had also constituted Tanzeem Islah-ul-Muslimeen with Jalees Ansari, a resident of Mumbai.

In 1993, Tunda and Ansari 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 toof Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, police said Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act would not be imposed on Tunda despite his organised crime, but they are planning to slap stringent provisions under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Sources added that police are planning to bee up security of Tunda following the attacked on him inside Patiala House court. “Senior police officers have warned us to be extra careful when he is being taken to hospital for the regular medical check-up. We keep extra men to deal with untoward incident,” said the source.