LeT terrorist Tunda has a Lucknow link

Dreaded Lashkar-e-Tayiba militant Abdul Karim 'Tunda,' who was picked up by Interpol in Kenya on Friday, has a Lucknow connection.

Tunda got his first passport issued from Lucknow way back in 1989, a senior police official disclosed this to rediff.com in Lucknow, adding that his other passport was found to have been issued from Bangladesh.

A resident of Pilkuan village in Ghaziabad (on the threshold of New Delhi), Tunda was wanted in connection with the Delhi serial blasts in the late nineties that left 24 dead and many others wounded.

Abdul Karim, who carries a cash reward of Rs 3 lakh on his head, acquired his nickname 'Tunda' after one of his arms was blown off when a bomb he was preparing exploded.

Sixty-four-year-old Tunda was believed to have a hand in the 1993 Mumbai blasts as well. "We would rule out his indirect involvement in the Ayodhya and Varanasi blasts as well as he was among the key LeT masterminds in India," observed the cop.

Passport authorities admit that Tunda got his passport issued from Lucknow on April 26, 1989. "Since Tunda was a resident of Uttar Pradesh, he applied in the normal course and got his passport issued from here; since his terrorist links were discovered only after 1990, he also got a clean–chit from the police," said the police official.

Not very long ago, a Dawood Ibrahim aide too had managed to get his passport issued from Lucknow, confirmed a Lucknow passport official. "That was Dawood's personal cook Khan Jabrail Khan, who got his passport issued from the Lucknow office as late as in 2004," the official said.

"But once again, the passport was issued after due verification by police and intelligence authorities who found nothing wrong with all the documentation attached by the applicant who was a resident of Bahraich," he added.