Srinagar: A group of investigators from J&K police's State Investigation Agency (SIA), officials from J&K’s revenue department and a tailor were preparing exhibits of recoveries made in the Faridabad ‘terror module’ case at a police station in Srinagar when a massive blast took place on Friday (November 14), The Wire has learnt.

Director general of J&K police Nalin Prabhat told reporters in Srinagar on Saturday morning that the blast was “accidental” in nature while asserting that “any other speculation” around the cause of the blast at the Nowgam police station in Srinagar was “unnecessary”.

The DGP said that a haul of 2900 kg of explosives and other material, recovered from Faridabad earlier this week, was “transported and kept securely in the open area of Nowgam police station”. 

“As part of the prescribed procedure, the sample of the recovery had to be forwarded for further examination. On account of the voluminous nature of recovery, this procedure was going on since Thursday. Due to the unstable and sensitive nature of the recovery, the sampling process and handling was being done with utmost caution by the FSL team. However, unfortunately, an accident took place,” he said.

Prabhat said that nine persons including an SIA official, three FSL experts, two revenue department officials, two police photographers, and a civilian tailor died in the blast while more than two dozen were injured. The DGP didn’t take questions from journalists during the media briefing.

The slain SIA official has been identified as Asrar-ul-Haq who had told his wife last night at their Srinagar residence that he was going to “return in 10 minutes” after finishing his work. 

Prabhat said that the building of the police station was “severely damaged” due to the explosion, “J&K police stands with the families of the deceased in this hour of grief,” the DGP said. 

A source said that the station house officer of the Nowgam police station narrowly avoided death as he had moved out of the area where investigators were preparing exhibits moments before the explosion at around 11.20 pm. 

"A civilian tailor Mohammad Shafi Parray was also brought there to stitch up the exhibits after which they were going to be sealed in front of the magistrate. Before it could happen, everything went up in flames and there was total chaos,” the source said.

A team of J&K police, accompanied by Faridabad police, had earlier this week recovered nearly 2900 kg haul of explosive material, gadgets, chemicals and batteries from the suspected hideout of the “inter-state and transnational” ‘terror module’ allegedly run by Jaish-e-Mohammad and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind. 

The case was later transferred to the J&K police’s elite counterterrorism unit SIA. The recovered items which were reportedly stored by the members of the ‘terror module’ in buckets and briefcases, were brought to Srinagar earlier this week. 

Some residents of Nowgam and adjoining localities recalled being awakened by the massive blast which was heard in most parts of the summer capital Srinagar and the adjoining south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. 

An official said that the police station was badly damaged in the blast while several cars parked in the premises were also gutted in the fire. 

Some videos filmed at the scene of the explosion show rescue workers struggling to evacuate the injured from the raging flames which had engulfed the police station.  

A local of Nowgam, who spoke with The Wire on the condition of anonymity, said that the first massive blast damaged several residential houses in the area and it was followed by a series of low intensity explosions.

The low intensity explosions are believed to have hampered the rescue workers from evacuating the injured who were later taken to Srinagar’s SMHS hospital and Ujala Cygnus hospital in Nowgam. 

“The condition of some of them is critical,” the official quoted above said. A team of police officials and forensic experts have cordoned off the site of the explosion in Srinagar. 

The Faridabad ‘terror module’ case has so far led to the arrest of two Kashmiri doctors – Dr Muzzamil Shakeel and Dr Addel Ahmad Rather, from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh respectively – while another doctor based in Dubai is absconding. 

A female doctor from Lucknow has also been arrested in the case.

Hours after the 'terror module' was busted on November 10, a massive explosion took place near a metro station in the crowded old Delhi area around Red Fort in which at least 13 persons were killed while more than two dozen suffered injuries. 

After a cabinet meeting earlier this week, the Centre had said the blast was being treated as an act of terrorism. 

According to officials, the explosion was caused by a Hyundai car which was allegedly driven by Dr Umar Nabi, a Kashmiri doctor working at Al Falah university in Faridabad who is believed to be part of the Faridabad terror module. 

However, officials have not linked Nabi who remains missing since the Red Fort blast with the Faridabad case yet.

According to reports in media quoting unnamed officials, the DNA samples from the car which was involved in the Red Fort blast have matched with the mother of Nabi but this too has not been officially confirmed. 

Earlier, the imam of a local mosque in Nowgam and a suspected overground worker of militants along with three youngsters were also arrested in the case.

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