Red Fort blast: Bomber seen justifying ‘martyrdom operation’ in video recorded by him before going underground

A week after the November 10 car bombing near Delhi’s Red Fort that killed 13 people and injured several others, a purported video of Dr Umer-un-Nabi — identified as the suicide bomber in the attack — has surfaced.

In the video, the speaker discusses what he calls “suicide bombing” and refers to it as a “martyrdom operation.”

The Tribune cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video. It appears to have been recorded by Umer before he went into hiding, following the Jammu and Kashmir Police’s busting of an interstate terror module.

Umer-un-Nabi, a resident of Pulwama, had been working at a private hospital run by Al-Falah University in Dhauj, Faridabad. He disappeared soon after his colleague, Dr Muzamil Ahmad Ganai, was arrested. Ganai’s arrest led to the recovery of over 2,900 kg of material used to manufacture improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Faridabad.

Investigators believe that while in hiding, Umer managed to procure explosives and assemble the device used in the November 10 blast near the Red Fort.

In the video now circulating, Umer says: “One of the most misunderstood concepts is what has been labelled as suicide bombing. It is a martyrdom operation.” He describes such operations as those in which an individual “presumes he is going to die at a particular place and time,” adding that there are “multiple contradictions and arguments” surrounding the idea.

Investigative agencies probing the blast and the so-called “white-collar” terror module revealed this week that Umer was “highly radicalised” and would openly discuss “suicide bombing” with his associates.