Tunda is one of the 20 most wanted terrorists in India.
Abdul Karim Tunda, Lashkar-e-Taiba's "bomb expert", has reportedly told the Delhi Police that he was once handled by Hamid Gul, a former chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI. The 70-year-old has also reportedly claimed that Pakistan Army officers control an operation to circulate fake rupee notes in India.
Tunda, one of the 20 most wanted terrorists in India, has reportedly said that he had met Mr Gul in 1995 and has been in touch with him through the years. India has for long alleged that Pakistan's ISI and Army support terrorism against India. Pakistan denies it outright.
Hamid Gul served as ISI chief between 1987 and 1989 and followed a hardline policy on India. He is believed to have supported militancy in Kashmir by architecting the shift of Mujahideen attention from Afghanistan to Kashmir.
Tunda, believed to have recruited for the ISI, has allegedly told the police that the agency's handlers also closely supervise the printing of fake Indian currency at a secured press in Pakistan. The currency is then circulated in India and also funds terror operations on Indian soil. (
From bomb-maker to jihadi recruiter)
He has said that three Pakistani armymen called Major Tayib, Major Altaf and Major Iqbal control the operation; also that he can name every person involved in the fake currency operation.
The septuagenarian terrorist, who lost one arm to bomb-making many years ago, was arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police from the Indo-Nepal border on Friday.
The Delhi Police believes he is a bigger catch than Abu Jundal, with in-depth knowledge of the terror network in Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.
In his interrogation so far, he has reportedly said he met India's most-wanted man Dawood Ibrahim in Karachi a year ago. Pakistan continues to deny the presence of Dawood on its soil, though Indian security agencies have repeatedly mentioned his name and details in dossiers handed over to Pakistani authorities. (
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He has allegedly also said that he was in regular touch with Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks, and met him a week before August 15 this year.
Tunda is wanted in 21 cases, including the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case; he is accused of masterminding over 40 bomb blasts in various cities between December 1996 and January 1998 that left 21 dead and over 400 injured.
He is in the custody of the Delhi Police till Tuesday.