Blast from confiscated explosives at police station in Indian-controlled Kashmir kills nine | India
Police announced that at least nine people were killed and 32 people were injured when explosives seized at a police station in Indian-controlled Kashmir detonated.
The explosion took place late Friday in the Nowgam area of the district’s main city, Srinagar, while a team of forensic experts and police were examining the explosive material, district director general of police Nalin Prabhat said. He ruled out any foul play, saying it was an accident.
Most of the dead were police and coroners. Some of the injured were in critical condition.
The huge explosion also shook the police station, setting the police station and many vehicles on fire. According to local media reports, successive small explosions hampered emergency rescue operations.
The explosion at the police station came just days after Monday’s deadly car explosion in New Delhi, which killed at least eight people near the city’s historic Red Fort. Indian authorities described the incident as a “heinous act of terrorism” carried out by “anti-national forces”.
The blast came hours after Kashmir police said they had busted a suspected militant cell operating in the disputed region, arrested at least seven people, including two doctors from Indian cities, and seized a large cache of bomb-making materials in the city of Faridabad.
Indian security agencies have since carried out a series of raids in Kashmir, questioning hundreds of people and detaining scores as part of their investigation into the car blast.
The police had brought the explosive material seized in Faridabad to Kashmir as part of the investigation, and according to senior police officer Prabhat, he added that it was “kept safely in open area” at the police station, where the investigation leading to the suspected militant cell began last month.
He said a team of experts was taking samples for forensic investigation when the blast occurred, calling it an “accidental explosion”.
“Any further speculation regarding the cause of this incident is unnecessary.”
