A detective-inspector with the Indian National Police, Karima Shapandar saved Neal Shaara, son of the police chief, from a gang of street thugs, and then helped him seek his missing brother. During the search Karima and Neal fell in love, but were soon captured by Bastion and his anti-mutant Operation: Zero Tolerance. In a Secret facility, they learned that Neal's brother had been transformed by Bastion into a Prime Sentinel. Bastion subjected them to the same morphing process, which catalyzed Neal's latent mutant powers; they manifested explosively, destroying most of the facility. Karima, meanwhile, was transformed into a more powerful Omega Sentinel, urging Neal to flee before her core programming to destroy mutants was activated.

Later, after Operation: Zero Tolerance had been disbanded by the international law enforcement agency S.H.I.E.L.D., a group of Genoshan Magistrates sought to use Karima in an attempt to reclaim control of the of the devastated Island Nation. Her transport was inadvertently destroyed by a small group of inquisitive Genoshan mutants and her canister crash-landed in Hammer Bay. There, it was located by Professor Xavier and Magneto, who interrupted Karima's Sentinel imprinting cycle. Seeking to restore Karima's humanity, causing them to revert to her original personality while simultaneously blocking the invading applications software from reprogramming her mind with operational protocols. A restored Karima subsequently aided in defeating the Magistrates, after which she joined Xavier and Magneto in helping to rebuild Genosha. A devoted Hindu, Karima struggle to accept her cybernetic form, believing she had offended someone on the wheel of karma to have been reborn as an abomination. While on Genosha, Karima and her newfound allies prevented Dark Beast's agents Stripmine and Appraiser from looting the island, thwarted an attempted assassination of Xavier by the shapeshifter Mystique, fought alongside Callisto against Earth-295 "(Age of Apocalypse's)" Sugar-Man, and teamed with Callisto, Shola Inkosi, and the X-Men Archangel and Husk in neighboring Zanzibar to help long-retired hero (and Zanzibar's President) Askari opposed an attempted invasion by the terrorist Viper and the mercenary Weaponeers.

Soon after, the mutant Scarlet Witch warped reality into a mutant utopia ruled by Magneto, who employed Karima as leader of a Sentinel squad sent to arrest Captain Britain (Brian Braddock) for supposed treason. After the restoration of conventional reality on "M-Day," Karima followed a telepathic S.O.S. from Lady Mastermind to the John Fordyce Memorial Hospital, where the enigmatic Pan abducted her. Karima was partially dismantled and subjected to experimentation for months before she and Lady Mastermind were liberated by the X-Men and taken to the Xavier Institute, where the Beast repaired her. After reawakening, Karima was left with gaps in her memory which she is determined to fill.