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New Delhi: Investigators probing the Red Fort suicide car bombing have confirmed that bomber Dr Umar Mohammad, also known as Umar-un-Nabi, had travelled to his home in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama days before the attack and handed over one of his phones to his brother, instructing him to destroy it if "anything happened".
According to reports, the video in which Nabi justified suicide bombings as "martyrdom operations" was recovered from this phone, which the brother later threw into a pond near their home. The device was later recovered.
According to investigators, Nabi visited Pulwama between October 26 and 29. Before returning to Faridabad, where he worked as an assistant professor at Al-Falah University, he gave one of his two phones to his brother, Zahoor Ilahi.
Panic set in when Zahoor heard news of the arrests of Nabi's close associates -- Dr Adeel Ahmed Rather in Srinagar on November 7, Dr Muzammil Shakeel in Faridabad on November 9, and Dr Shaheen Saeed a day later. All three were linked to the same radicalised module. Believing police were hunting for Umar as well, he disposed of the phone in a pond.
When investigators traced the bomber's devices after the November 10 blast, they found both phones switched off -- one last active in Delhi, the other in Pulwama. A search at the family home led to Zahoor revealing that he had dumped the device. The phone, damaged by water, was later recovered and the video extracted.
The clip, now central to the investigation, shows Nabi defending suicide attacks despite Islam prohibiting taking one's own life. "It is a martyrdom operation… Don't fear death," he says. Psychologists analysing the footage say he appears confident and rehearsed, with no hesitation in justifying his actions.
The video was likely recorded in Room 13 of Building 17 at Al-Falah University, the same location where the module allegedly planned the attack and stored nearly 2,900 kg of explosives recovered earlier from a room rented by co-accused Dr Shakeel.
This confirms the video was created at least a week before the blast, possibly earlier. It is unclear whether Nabi recorded it as a declaration ahead of his suicide mission or as propaganda for others being radicalised.
At least 15 people were killed in the November 10 car bombing near the Red Fort.
