Srinagar: An accidental explosion ripped through the Nowgam police station here, killing nine people and injuring 32, Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Nalin Prabhat said Saturday, and ruled out any terror attack.
He said the blast occurred Friday night when a specialised team was extracting samples from a large and “unstable” cache of explosives confiscated from Faridabad, Haryana in connection with the ongoing investigation into a ‘white-collar’ terror module.
“Any other speculation into the cause of this incident is unnecessary,” Prabhat said, putting to rest theories circulating on social media and TV channels about a potential terror attack targeting the police station.
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 of the State Investigation Agency (SIA) and a tailor associated with the team were killed in the blast.
A total of 32 people — 27 police personnel, two revenue officials, and three civilians from adjacent areas — were injured. They were immediately evacuated to local hospitals for treatment, he said.
According to the DGP, the sampling process had been going on for the past two days.
“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.
“However, unfortunately, during this course, last night around 11.20 pm, an accidental explosion took place,” he said.
The samples were being extracted for forensic and chemical examination as part of the procedure in FIR No. 162/2025, the case which exposed the entire ‘white-collar’ terror module and led to the arrest of eight people, including three doctors.
The police station building was severely damaged, and adjacent structures were also affected by the massive blast. Small successive explosions initially hampered the rescue operation, the police chief said.
The materials being sampled were part of a huge recovery, approximately 360 kg of explosive substances, chemicals and reagents, including ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate, and sulphur.
This cache was recovered by Jammu and Kashmir Police from the rented residence of arrested accused Dr Muzzamil Ganaie in Faridabad November 9 and 10.
The bulk of the 360 kg of explosives was stored securely in an open area at the Nowgam police station, where the primary case for the terror module was registered.
The entire 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 investigators to Al Falah University in Faridabad, where Dr Ganaie and Dr Shaheen Sayeed were arrested, and the huge chemical cache was seized.
Investigators believe a core trio of doctors — Dr Ganaie, Umar Nabi (the driver of an explosives-laden car that exploded near the Red Fort 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.
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