9, mostly policemen, killed, 29 injured in massive blast at Srinagar police station
Srinagar: At least nine people, mostly policemen, were killed and 29 others wounded in a massive explosion at Nowgam police station on the outskirts of Srinagar city late on Friday night.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the blast occurred while police personnel were handling explosive material recently brought from Faridabad in the Indian state of Haryana, officials said. The condition of several injured personnel is stated to be critical.
An official said, “Most of the dead are policemen and forensic team members. A Naib Tehsildar and a local tailor are also among the dead.” He added that identification of the bodies is underway as some have been completely burnt. The intensity of the blast was such that some of the body parts were recovered from nearby houses around 100-200 meters away from the police station, he said.
Indian authorities had earlier claimed the recovery of 360 kilograms of explosives from a rented house in Faridabad, linking it to arrested Kashmiri doctor Muzammil Ganaie, dubbed by them as part of a so-called ‘white-collar militant module’.
Officials said a portion of the seized material was brought to the Nowgam Police Station for “sampling” as part of the ongoing investigation into the recent car bomb explosion in Delhi when the blast occurred. The explosion caused severe damage to the building, and sent the night into chaos as police and ambulances rushed to the site.
Following the explosion, a fire engulfed the building and several vehicles parked inside its premises. Video footage from the area show the blast ripping through the building, sending flames and thick smoke into the air.
Reports said small successive explosions followed the initial blast, preventing immediate rescue operations by the bomb disposal squad.
Media sources added that while some samples had been kept at Forensic Lab of police, the major part of the 360 kg of explosives was stored at the Nowgam police station, where the primary case was registered.
Doubts over official narrative grow
Indian officials claimed the so-called conspiracy was uncovered after posters threats to Indian forces surfaced in Bunpora, Nowgam, in mid-October. CCTV footage, they said, led to the arrest of three youths — Arif Nisar Dar, Yasir-ul-Ashraf, and Maqsood Ahmad Dar allegedly seen pasting the posters.
During interrogation, the police claimed the trio named Irfan Ahmad from Shopian as the supplier of the posters, which led them to Al-Falah University in Faridabad, where arrested two Kashmiri doctors Dr Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie and Dr Shaheen Sayeed were arrested and a huge cache of chemicals was allegedly seized.
According to officials, the so-called “module” was being operated by three doctors, including arrested Dr Muzammil Ganaie and Dr Umar Nabi (accused of driving the explosive-laden car that blew up near Delhi’s Red Fort on November 10). The role of others including arrested Dr Adeel Rather remains “under investigation”.
However, independent observers have dismissed the official narrative as deeply flawed and politically motivated, questioning how a poster-pasting incident could lead to wild allegations of a white-collar “terror syndicate”. They note that Srinagar and its suburbs are covered by extensive CCTV surveillance, making such claims even more questionable.
Political analysts say the latest arrests fit a larger pattern of New Delhi’s campaign to discredit Kashmiri Muslim professionals especially doctors by implicating them in fabricated terror cases. They warn that India is weaponizing manufactured cases to divert attention from its internal failures and justify intensified repression in the occupied territory.
Was the blast an accident — or a cover-up?
Political analysts have raised several serious questions about the reported “accidental” blast. The first question is whether the so-called claims of recovering explosives from Faridabad and elsewhere were merely a fabricated narrative now being erased? This police station held central importance in the investigation of the Delhi blast and the arrest of the doctors. Has the record been deliberately destroyed? Were the Kashmiris arrested and accused also detained in this same police station? Was there a plan to eliminate them as well?
Analysts say the series of events appears “less like an accident and more a Bollywood-style script”, raising fears that the truth is being buried under the rubble of Nowgam Police station.
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