Kashmir Police Station Blast: Wounded Civilians Recall Horrific Time In Hospitals

Fifty-year-old Rafiq Ahmad Bhat’s head was wrapped in a cast, and he had received stitches after he was hit by a window that blew away at his house in the Nowgam area of Srinagar on Friday. A blast at the neighbourhood police station that day left nine people dead and thirty others injured. Rafiq was boiling water in his kitchen for gargling because of swelling in his teeth, and was about to go to bed when the blast rocked the area. Initially, he thought that a gas cylinder had blown up, but then he realised it was the explosive substance at the police station that had detonated.

A row of other houses was also damaged in the Nowgam area, which lies across the highway that sees regular police patrol and the heavy vehicular movement of security forces towards the Line of Control areas in Kashmir. When Rafiq raised his hand to his head, it was all dripping in blood.

But the family didn’t immediately shift to the hospital, fearing that they could be blamed for the blast itself. It was only after nearly half an hour that Rafiq’s wounds were dressed.

“When I wiped my head with the towel, it was full of blood. I have received a severe gash in my head from the impact of the window. I don’t know how long it will take for me to recover or whether I will completely heal up. Doctors have advised me to undergo a CT scan test, which would help them recommend further treatment,” says Rafiq, at their old house, whose windows were covered with polythene sheets after most of the panes had been broken. The blast has also damaged several of the windows and doors in the house.

Three civilians who live in the Nowgam area are among the thirty people who have been injured due to the blast. Local residents have said that the authorities should have been more careful in the handling of the explosive, which was recovered from Faridabad in Haryana and kept at the police station for forensic examination.  Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir police said that they had recovered 2,900 kg of explosive substance during the raids at Faridabad and Uttar Pradesh while they were investigating the case of threats being issued to the security force personnel by some militant groups.

A youth, Auqib Qayoom Gilkar, had gone to bed when the blast ripped through the police station next to their home. When he got up, his legs were all covered in blood. He is not clear whether he received a shard of explosive substance or the broken panes of his fully damaged house in the back, which has left him injured. “I was injured in the hip and I have lost two pints of blood. It was a horrible scene all around when I moved to  the hospital,” says Auqib, whose house has been fully damaged due to the blast.

After the blast, security forces raised barricades at the entry points to the area near the police station, where work to remove the debris was underway. 

“I was taken by my cousin to the hospital, and it was only half an hour later that the fire tenders and ambulance reached the place,” he says.

Bashir Ahmad Dar, a local resident, says that his son was among those injured in the Nowgam blast. With both his house and a vehicle facing damage due to the blast, Dar says that his son was wounded in the head after he was hit by part of the wreckage in the house that was left by the impact of the blast. Dar, a driver, was in Jammu in connection with his government job when he received the call about the blast. “ I rushed back home and here what I could realise was that my house had turned into rubble,” he says.

Rafiq says he struggles to move his face, and even laughing or taking food causes him pain. “We have never come across scenes like that of Friday night; it was horrific,” he says.