In the first definitive confirmation that the disturbing video recorded by the Delhi suicide bomber, Dr Umar Mohammad alias Umar-un-Nabi, was filmed at least a week before he detonated an explosives-laden car near the Red Fort, sources have informed that the footage was stored on a mobile phone that Nabi had handed over to his brother at their family home in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama earlier this month.
Since the video surfaced on Tuesday, showing Nabi describing suicide bombings as “martyrdom operations,” intense speculation has surrounded the exact timing of its recording and the precise sequence of events that culminated in the November 10 attack, which claimed 13 lives.
According to sources who spoke to national media, approximately one week before Nabi executed the bombing, he returned to the family residence in Pulwama. Before departing again for Faridabad, where he was employed as an assistant professor in the General Medicine department at Al Falah University, Nabi gave one of his two mobile phones to his brother.
The sources revealed that the brother learnt of the arrests of Nabi’s colleagues at Al Falah University—first Dr Adeel Ahmed Rather on November 7 for allegedly putting up posters linked to a terror outfit in Srinagar, then Dr Muzammil Shakeel on November 9 in connection with a major explosives seizure in Faridabad, and finally Dr Shaheen Saeed the following day, just hours before the blast near the Red Fort.
“He knew they were his brother’s colleagues and friends and said he had heard the police were looking for Nabi as well,” a source stated.
Overcome with panic, Nabi’s brother threw the phone into a pond close to their house in Pulwama. When investigators attempted to track the two phones known to have belonged to Nabi, they discovered both devices were switched off, with their last recorded locations showing one in Delhi and the other in Pulwama.
Subsequently, investigators arrived at the family home in Pulwama and, after prolonged questioning, the brother admitted that Nabi had given him a phone and that he had disposed of it in the pond.
Recovery
Sources said the suicide bombing in Delhi took place while the brother was still being questioned. The phone was retrieved from the pond only after the explosion had occurred.
“The phone had sustained water damage and the motherboard was also malfunctioning. We managed to recover Nabi’s video only a few days later,” a source disclosed. The video was made public on Tuesday. In it, Nabi attempts to justify suicide bombings—despite the Islamic prohibition on taking one’s own life—by reframing them as acts of “martyrdom.”
“One of the very misunderstood concepts is the concept of what has been labelled as suicide bombing. It is a martyrdom operation... known in Islam. Now, there are multiple contradictions; there are multiple arguments that have been brought against it,” he says in the recording.
Umar further states that no one can foresee when or where death will come, insisting that whatever is destined will inevitably occur. “Don’t fear death,” he adds chillingly.
Following a detailed analysis of the footage, psychologist Namrata Ohri said that although Nabi avoided direct eye contact with the camera, he appeared remarkably confident and fully convinced of his message.
“He is trying to remember what he thought, and he’s very confident in what he had scripted. He was trying to convince the audience that whatever he has done or whatever he is going to do is absolutely correct and well-algorithmic and well-programmed. He’s very confident in his thought process, too. He is trying to make himself clear very naturally,” she observed.
Also Read: Al-Falah group founder Siddiqui arrested
Timeline
Earlier disclosures from sources indicated that Nabi recorded the video in room number 13 of building number 17 on the expansive Al Falah University campus—the same room where the group of radicalised doctors, allegedly connected to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed, reportedly planned their operation, which involved 2,900 kg of explosives seized from a rented premises registered in Dr Muzammil Shakeel’s name.
“This would, thus, mean that the video is at least from a week before the blast, and could be much older still. It is not clear from the clip whether Nabi was talking about a suicide bombing he was planning to carry out or talking to others whom his module was trying to radicalise,” an official noted.
Also Read: 'Suicide bombing misunderstood': Delhi bomber's chilling video
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