Six killed and 27 injured in Nowgam police station explosion late Friday night.
Blast occurred while handling 360 kg of explosives linked to terror module case.
Investigation traces explosives to Faridabad and arrests of doctors involved.
Six people were killed and 27 others injured when an accidental explosion occurred at Nowgam police station on the outskirts of Srinagar late Friday night, officials said.
The blast took place while authorities were extracting samples from a large cache of explosives recently seized in connection with the 'white-collar' terror module case, PTI reported.
According to officials, the majority of the victims were policemen and forensic personnel. The explosive material, brought from Faridabad in Haryana, was part of 360 kilograms recovered from the rented residence of arrested doctor Muzammil Ganaie and was being processed as part of the ongoing investigation.
Six bodies have been retrieved from the site and taken to the Police Control Room in Srinagar, while 24 police personnel and three civilians were admitted to various hospitals in the city, PTI reported. Small, successive explosions delayed immediate rescue operations by the bomb disposal squad.
The blast also caused damage to the police station building. While some of the seized explosives were stored at the police forensic laboratory, the bulk remained at the station, where the primary case for the terror module was registered.
Investigators linked the module to threats posted on walls in Bunpora, Nowgam, in mid-October. Following the postings, Srinagar police registered a case on October 19 and formed a dedicated investigation team. Frame-by-frame analysis of CCTV footage helped identify three initial suspects — Arif Nisar Dar alias Sahil, Yasir-ul-Ashraf, and Maqsood Ahmad Dar alias Shahid — all of whom had prior cases for stone pelting and were seen pasting the threatening posters.
Interrogation of the trio led to the arrest of Maulvi Irfan Ahmad, a former paramedic turned Imam from Shopian, who supplied the posters and reportedly radicalised the doctors due to his access to the medical community. This investigation eventually traced authorities to Al Falah University in Faridabad, where Dr Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie and Dr Shaheen Sayeed were arrested and a substantial cache of chemicals, including ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate, and sulphur, was seized.
Officials said the terror module was allegedly operated by a core group of three doctors — Muzammil Ganaie (arrested), Umar Nabi (driver of the car laden with explosives that exploded near the Red Fort on November 10), and Muzzaffar Rather (absconding). The role of Dr Adeel Rather, brother of the absconding Muzzaffar Rather, from whom an AK-56 rifle was recovered, remains under investigation, PTI reported.
(With inputs from PTI)
