Security personnel keep vigil after an accidental explosion ripped through Nowgam police station on late Friday night, in Srinagar.
Credit: PTI photo
Srinagar: A devastating late-night explosion tore through the Nowgam Police Station on the outskirts of Srinagar, killing nine people—including a police inspector and a Naib Tehsildar—and injuring 29 others, officials said on Friday.
The toll is expected to rise as several of the injured are critical. Officials said the blast occurred when a large quantity of confiscated explosive material stored inside the station suddenly detonated. The stock, believed to be ammonium nitrate, had recently been transported from Faridabad following the busting of an alleged “white-collar” terror module by Jammu & Kashmir Police.
Among the dead is Inspector Asrar Ahmad of the State Investigation Agency (SIA), a resident of Kupwara, and Naib Tehsildar Muzaffar Ahmad of Soibugh, Budgam. A local tailor was also killed. Several personnel from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) were present at the time of the explosion.
The impact was so severe that multiple bodies were charred beyond recognition, and body parts were found 100–200 metres away in nearby residential areas. At least six unidentified bodies were shifted to the Police Control Room in Srinagar.
The injured — mostly policemen— were rushed to the Army’s 92 Base Hospital and other hospitals in the city. CCTV footage from the area captured the moment of the massive detonation, which was followed by smaller successive blasts that slowed rescue efforts by bomb disposal units.
While some of the explosives recovered from the rented accommodation of Dr Muzammil Ganaie in Faridabad, Haryana on November 10, have been kept at the J&K police forensic lab, the major part of the 360 kg of explosives was stored at the police station, where the primary case for the terror module was registered.
The cache was linked to the wider investigation into the 2,900 kg ammonium nitrate haul seized during Faridabad raids that preceded the high-intensity Delhi blast near Red Fort. The entire conspiracy was unravelled after the posters threatening police and security forces appeared on walls in Bunpora, Nowgam, in mid-October.
The Nowgam tragedy comes just days after the Hyundai i20 car explosion near Red Fort, which killed at least 10 people. Probes later identified the driver as Umar-un Nabi, a doctor from Pulwama, who investigators say had ties to the same terror network connected to the Faridabad seizures.
Authorities have ordered a detailed inquiry into what triggered the accidental explosion and whether safety protocols were followed while storing and handling the seized explosives.