Kashmir Police Station Blast Kills Nine

By Staff, Agencies

At least nine people were killed and nearly 30 injured when a stockpile of seized explosives detonated at a police station in Srinagar, the main city of Indian-administered Kashmir.

The stockpile exploded late on Friday night at a police station in the Nowgam area, south of Srinagar.

One unnamed source told the Reuters news agency that identification efforts were under way as some bodies “have been completely burned”.

“The intensity of the blast was such that some body parts were recovered from nearby houses, around 100-200 meters [110-220 yards] away from the police station,” the source said.

Most of those killed were policemen and forensic team officials who were examining the explosives at the time of the detonation, unnamed sources told Indian broadcaster NDTV. Two officials from the Srinagar administration also died in the blast.

With five people still in critical condition, the death toll could continue to climb, according to the media outlet.

“Not a terror attack. Police say it’s a very unfortunate incident,” NDTV’s senior executive editor Aditya Raj Kaul said in a post on social media.

“The blast happened when a forensics team and the police were checking the explosive material stored at the police station,” he said.

The huge blast came days after Monday’s deadly car explosion in New Delhi, which killed at least 12 people near the city’s historic Red Fort and which officials have called a “terror” incident.

The explosion in the Indian capital occurred just hours after police arrested several people and seized explosive materials as well as assault rifles.

Police said the suspects were linked to Jaish-e-Muhammad [JeM], a Pakistan-based group that is seeking to end Indian rule in Kashmir, and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, a Kashmir offshoot linked to JeM.

Police in Indian-administered Kashmir also detained more than 650 people as part of their investigation following the New Delhi car blast.

According to reports, the Nowgam police station, where the blast took place on Friday, had led an investigation into posters that were displayed around the area by JeM, warning it would carry out attacks on security forces and “outsiders”.

Police said their investigation into the posters exposed a “white-collar terror ecosystem, involving radicalized professionals and students in contact with foreign handlers, operating from Pakistan and other countries”.

Police also recovered nearly 3,000kg [3 tonnes] of explosive material, saying the armed group was stockpiling enough to carry out a major attack in India.

Kashmir, claimed by both India and Pakistan, has been divided since 1947. The two countries have fought three wars over the territory, and tensions remain high.