At least nine people were killed, and several others injured after a late-night explosion on Friday at the Nowgam police station in Jammu and Kashmir. The accidental explosion took place while the officials were examining samples from explosives which were seized during the terror module bust in Faridabad.
The blast, which occurred at around 11:20 pm, also damaged parts of the police station building and surrounding areas.
Local residents, recounting the aftermath of the explosion, said they heard a “loud blast” and were “shaken”. “We went to sleep later and found out about it this morning...” Shafad Ahmed, a local resident, told ANI news agency.
Ahmed said the local residents had reached the spot after finding out about the incident in the morning, adding that they were not allowed meet their relatives who reside near the area of the explosion.
“My relatives reside near the Police Station. I have not been able to speak with them…” he said, adding that he had “never heard such a loud blast” in his life.
{{/usCountry}}“My relatives reside near the Police Station. I have not been able to speak with them…” he said, adding that he had “never heard such a loud blast” in his life.
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, another local, Tariq Ahmed said he saw “a lot of smoke and dead bodies”, adding that “everything was devastated” following the explosion. He said the residents had heard a “loud explosion” but could not figure out what it was.
“It was when we saw the people coming out of it, crying, that we knew something had happened in the police station. When we reached, we saw everything was devastated, there was a lot of smoke and dead bodies...” Tariq said, adding that his neighbours had died.
Explosives recovered from Faridabad's ‘white collar’ terror module
The explosive samples that the officials were handling were recovered from the terror module bust in Faridabad. This module included radicalised ‘white collar’ doctors associated with Faridabad's Al-Falah University.
These doctors are also allegedly linked to the explosion near Delhi's Red Fort, with the driver of the car which exploded, 35-year-old Umar un-Nabi, having ties with them.
Nabi, along with two other associates – Dr Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie and Dr Shaheen Shahid – had pooled ₹26 lakh in cash and bought around 26 quintals of NPK fertiliser for manufacturing improvised explosive devices.
On November 9 and 10, a cache of explosives and chemicals was recovered from Faridabad and transported to J&K. Samples from these were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for examination on November 13 and 14. The explosion took place during the handling process.