WHAT GOES ON IN THE MIND OF A SUICIDE BOMBER?

WHAT goes on inside the mind of a suicide bomber like Dr Umar Un Nabi, 35, who blew up his white Hyundai i20 car outside Red Fort on November 10?

- BALA CHAUHAN @ Bengaluru

He was trained for fidayeen (suicide bomb) attack allegedly by the Pakistan based Masood Azhar-ledJaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) "much ahead of the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam", said highly placed sources.Umar's video, retrieved from his mobile phone, shows him justifying suicide bombing as martyrdom. It is a key exhibit in the investigation and a critical clue into the making of the jihadist.

A young man from a financially vulnerable background rising against odds to become a medical doctor after years of hard work and diligence was an assurance to the rest of his family that things will start looking up once he scales his career up. Yet, Umar drove an explosive laden car into the heart of India's capital and detonated it, accidentally or otherwise, killing 15 in the vicinity and injuring several others on that autumn evening.

Suicide bombing, its real estate and archaeology are disturbing and alarmist. "It is a complex phenomenon involving 'suicide' and 'terrorism' requiring multi-dimensional approach to address the deadly terror tactics. Behaviour is the product of biological, cognitive, affective, social, cultural and religious processes," stated Suresh Bada Math, Professor of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Dr Nitin Anand, also from NIMHANS and Maria Christine Nirmala from Knowledge Management in an MNC, India in their research paper on "Terrorism and Human Behaviour' published in 'Terror and Suicide' by Nova Science Publishers, New York.

Countering the possibility of co-relation between mental illness and suicide bombers, the researchers argued that there is none. "Terrorism is a form of learned behaviour either voluntarily or through mental manipulation. There are no reports or studies to suggest that terrorists or suicide bombers suffer from any kind of severe mental illness or antisocial personality or show higher rates of any kind of psychopathology.