Red Fort Blast: Bomber Calls It Martyrdom Operation, Not Suicide Bombing

Red Fort Blast: Video Emerges

The Probe has accessed an undated video of the Red Fort blast 'bomber' Umar un Nabi. He can be seen speaking in front of a camera almost as if he is trying to justify the act of suicide bombing. Whether the video was made to motivate others about the idea of suicide bombing or for some other unknown purpose remains unclear. But he is speaking in broken words, and he disconnects the video when he loses his line of thought.

In the video, Umar un Nabi, the doctor who was allegedly at the wheels of the car that exploded on November 10 near Red Fort in Delhi killing over a dozen people, is seen talking about the act of suicide bombing. It is a 1-minute-20-second clip. For some, the clip might not mean anything very significant other than him calling suicide bombing a ‘martyrdom operation’. But if you carefully read between the lines, you can sense the intent of a terrorist who not only seeks to justify the act of terrorism but also tries to motivate others by calling it an act of ‘martyrdom’.

Red Fort Blast: Bomber’s Words

In the video, he can be seen saying: "One of the very misunderstood concept is the concept of what has been labelled as suicide bombing. It is a ‘Martyrdom Operation.’.." He argues that the term “suicide bombing” is a misnomer from his ideological perspective. By calling it a “martyrdom operation”, he’s reframing the act: not simply self-destruction, but a religiously justified sacrifice. This reframing is common among many extremist groups, who avoid the word “suicide” (which has negative religious connotations) and instead use terms like shahadat or “martyrdom”.

He then says: "There are multiple contradictions… There are multiple arguments that have been brought against it. ‘Martyrdom Operation’ is when a person presumes that he is going to die for sure at a particular place at a particular time… He goes against the presumption that a particular person is going to die in a particular situation… Is not… we don’t have… We don’t have a situation…"

He seems to claim that a martyr “presumes” he’ll die, but not with certainty. In his view, it's about intention and sacrifice, not necessarily a guaranteed death. He is trying to say that no one can predict exactly when or where they will die — it will happen only if it is destined. He’s seen to be invoking qadar (destiny), the idea that life and death are ultimately determined by divine will. By doing this, he tries to reconcile his act with religious fatalism: even though he “plans” to die, the exact moment is not guaranteed by him; that is up to God.

Red Fort Blast: Theology vs Terror

He’s trying to remove the personal fear barrier, turning the act of dying into an act of religious valour, not despair. It’s also a typical extremist narrative: by framing death as an honourable “martyrdom,” he normalises or even glorifies the risk.

What he is also trying to do is — he knows that suicide is considered a major sin (haram) in Islam and is strictly forbidden. Islamic teachings view life as a sacred gift and a trust from God (Allah), and as such no one has the right to end their own life. So he is essentially trying to say that this is not suicide bombing but a martyrdom operation, and that death is not certain and ultimately it is the will of God.

Though barely over a minute long and fragmented in its delivery, the video is far from insignificant. In those broken sentences lies a window into the mind of a man attempting to package violence as virtue. His words are not casual remarks; they reflect a deliberate effort to shape a philosophy, to legitimise an act of terror as an act of faith, and to motivate others who might be vulnerable to such indoctrination. The clip, despite its brevity, offers a rare and unsettling glimpse into the ideological conditioning that precedes radicalisation — and into the mindset of the man accused of carrying out the Red Fort Blast, one of the deadliest attacks in the national capital.