An accidental explosion ripped through the Nowgam police station in Srinagar, killing nine people and injuring 32, underlining that it was not a terror attack
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SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI — An accidental explosion ripped through the Nowgam police station in Srinagar, killing nine people and injuring 32, senior officials said on Saturday, underlining that it was not a terror attack.
The blast occurred around 11:20 pm on Friday when a specialised team was extracting samples from a large and "unstable" cache of explosives confiscated in connection with an ongoing 'white-collar' terror module investigation.
Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Nalin Prabhat and Joint Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Prashant Lokhande, read out similar statements before the media in Srinagar and New Delhi, respectively, dismissing speculation of a terror attack and stressing that the incident was an unfortunate accident.
The two officers did not take any questions from the reporters.
Prabhat said three personnel from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) team, two crime photographers, two Revenue officials (part of the Magistrate's team), one official from the State Investigation Agency, and one tailor associated with the team were killed in the "unfortunate" blast.
He said 27 police personnel, two revenue officials, and three civilians from adjacent areas were injured in the incident and were immediately evacuated to local hospitals for treatment.
Both Prabhat and Lokhande made it clear that the blast occurred while FSL teams were conducting the prescribed procedure of taking samples from a huge haul of seized explosives for forensic and chemical examination.
"Due to the unstable and sensitive nature of the recovery, the sampling process, the handling was being done with extreme caution, with utmost caution by the FSL team," Prabhat said.
"However, unfortunately, during this course, last night around 11.20 pm, an accidental explosion took place," he said.
The sampling process, necessary due to the "voluminous" nature of the recovery, had been ongoing for two days, he added.
The massive blast severely damaged the police station building and affected adjacent structures. Small successive explosions initially hampered rescue operations.
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha ordered a probe into the explosion at the police station.
In his post on X, he said, "I have ordered a probe to ascertain the cause of the accidental explosion."
The materials being sampled were approximately 360 kg of explosive substances, chemicals, and reagents, including ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate, and sulphur.
The huge cache of explosives was brought from Haryana's Faridabad in a Tata 407 pickup truck in small bags, a top official said.
On the reason behind transporting the explosives to Kashmir, the official said the original case was registered at the Nowgam police station and the explosives were the case property of that police station. Hence, there was a need to transport the explosives so far.
Asked about the possible targets of the 'white-collar' terror module which collected the explosives, the official said the investigators were still grappling for clues.
"All the information about the possible targets was... purely speculative," the official said.
This cache was recovered by Jammu and Kashmir Police from the rented residence of arrested accused Dr Muzzamil Ganaie in Faridabad on November 9 and 10.
The bulk of the 360 kg of explosives was stored securely in an open area at the Nowgam police station.
The investigation began after posters threatening police and security forces appeared on walls in Bunpora, Nowgam, in mid-October.
CCTV footage analysis led to the arrest of the first three suspects -- Arif Nisar Dar alias Sahil, Yasir-ul-Ashraf, and Maqsood Ahmad Dar alias Shahid. Their interrogation led to the arrest of Maulvi Irfan Ahmad, a former paramedic turned Imam, who allegedly supplied the posters and radicalised the doctors.
The trail led the investigators to Al Falah University in Faridabad, where Dr Ganaie and Dr Shaheen Sayeed were arrested, and the huge chemical cache was seized.
The investigators believe a core trio of doctors -- Dr Ganaie, Umar Nabi (the driver of an explosives-laden car that exploded near the Red Fort on November 10, killing 13 people), and Muzzaffar Rather (absconding) -- were running the module.
The role of the eighth arrested person, Dr Adeel Rather, the brother of Muzzaffar, is still under investigation.