ABIMAEL GUZMAN, the founder of the Peruvian rebel group Shining Path died in prison Saturday, according to the country’s National Penitentiary Institute. He was 86.

Shining Path was active in the 1980s and 1990s, spreading terror in the country through a bombing campaign that targeted buildings and infrastructure such as electricity towers.

Its prominence began to fade after Guzman, known as Camarada Gonzalo, was captured and sentenced to life in prison in 1992.

Under Guzman’s leadership, the group declared war on the Peruvian Government in 1980, carrying out bombings and assassination operations, which by official accounts killed more than 30,000 Peruvians during the next 20 years. Another 30,000 Peruvians died at the hands of the government and paramilitary groups in the fight against the group, a government commission said in 2003.

The group also conducted a number of devastating attacks in Lima. It blew up electrical transmission towers, causing citywide blackouts, bombed factories, and set off explosives near government offices and inside the ruling party’s political headquarters. Its 1992 attack on Tarata, a residential street in Lima, killed at least 25 people and was the group’s deadliest assault.(SD-Agencies)