NEW DELHI: Abdul Karim Tunda, one of India's most wanted terrorists, and a key player behind the terror attacks on Mumbai trains, is living in Pakistan, intelligence sources say.
Amid the confusion over his reported - and then denied - arrest in Kenya, a senior intelligence official said, "We have specific information that Tunda was among the planners of the Mumbai blasts."
Nearly 200 people were killed and hundreds were injured when powerful bombs exploded one after another in first class compartments of Mumbai's local trains on July 11.
Senior intelligence officials say Tunda, 63, was hiding in Pakistan, pretending to be a perfume seller.
Originally a resident of western Uttar Pradesh, he got the nickname Tunda after one of his hands blew up while making bombs.
"He has been in Pakistan since fleeing from India in 1998," said the official, rubbishing reports of his so-called arrest in Kenya which Kenyan authorities have since denied.
"His shop is barely a few metres away from the headquarters of the Lashker-e-Taiba (at Muridke in Pakistan)."
Tunda had been named in connection with over 40 terror bombings in India between 1996 and 1998. He reportedly fled to Pakistan through Bangladesh on an Indian passport secured from Lucknow.
