At least nine people lost their lives and 32 others were injured after an “accidental explosion” ripped through the Nowgam police station in India-occupied Kashmir’s Srinagar late Friday night, authorities confirmed on Saturday. Officials said the blast occurred when confiscated explosives — seized earlier this week in Haryana — detonated while a team was examining the materials.
According to the Press Trust of India (PTI), most of the deceased were members of the police and forensic teams who were extracting samples from a large cache of explosive substances. The fatalities reportedly include three officials from the Forensic Science Laboratory, two employees of the revenue department, two police photographers, a State Investigation Agency member, and a tailor present at the facility.
The Ministry of Home Affairs acknowledged the casualties, with Joint Secretary Prashant Lokhande stating that the incident was under investigation. He urged against “unnecessary speculation” regarding the cause of the blast until official findings are released.
Both Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Director General of Police Nalin Prabhat described the incident as “accidental”. Sinha announced a formal probe to determine the precise circumstances leading to the explosion. Prabhat also reiterated that speculation or suggestions of foul play were unwarranted.
A police officer, quoted by The Hindu, explained that the material recovered earlier in the week was “extremely sensitive and unstable”, and that sampling was being carried out with “extreme caution”. Despite the safety protocols in place, the explosives detonated, triggering what PTI described as “small successive explosions” that delayed immediate rescue efforts by bomb disposal teams.
The police station building was left extensively damaged, with adjoining structures also affected by the powerful blast. A Reuters source said the explosion was so intense that some bodies were “completely burnt”, and body parts were found as far as 100–200 metres from the blast site.
Officials told PTI that at least 24 police personnel and three civilians were admitted to various hospitals in Srinagar. Local police refuted claims circulating on social media that a group calling itself the People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF) had claimed responsibility, terming such assertions “baseless, false and mischievous”.
Raids in Occupied Kashmir After Delhi Blast
The incident occurred only days after a deadly car explosion in New Delhi on November 10, which killed at least eight people. Indian authorities have called the Delhi blast a “terror incident”, and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is leading the inquiry. However, investigators have yet to publicly identify suspects or determine whether the attack was carried out by a domestic outfit or involved foreign links.
Indian media have drawn connections between the Delhi explosion and a series of arrests conducted earlier that same day, in which explosive materials and assault rifles were allegedly seized.
Since Wednesday, police in India-occupied Kashmir have launched sweeping raids across the region. While there has been no official confirmation that the searches are directly connected to the New Delhi blast, the operations signal heightened security measures following the incident. On Friday, Indian forces also demolished a house in Pulwama, and earlier, officers searched the Al-Falah University campus in Faridabad.
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