New Delhi: Eight personnel were injured in an accidental explosion at the Nowgam police station on the outskirts of Srinagar late Friday night, officials told PTI. The blast took place while investigators were extracting samples from a large cache of explosives recently seized in connection with the so‑called “white-collar” terror module.
According to officials, the explosives had been brought from Faridabad in Haryana and formed part of the 360 kg of explosive chemicals recovered from the rented house of arrested doctor Muzammil Ganaie. Sirens rang out across the area as ambulances rushed the injured to hospital. Small, successive blasts after the initial explosion briefly forced the bomb disposal squad to pause rescue efforts for safety reasons.
It is still not clear whether the entire 360 kg of explosive material was being stored at the Nowgam police station, where the main case is registered. The module came under the scanner in mid-October after threatening posters targeting police and security forces were found pasted on walls in Bunpora, Nowgam. Srinagar Police registered a case on October 19 and set up a special team to probe the incident.
A detailed analysis of CCTV footage led investigators to three men – Arif Nisar Dar alias Sahil, Yasir-ul-Ashraf and Maqsood Ahmad Dar alias Shahid – all previously booked in stone-pelting cases, who were seen putting up the posters. Their questioning pointed to Maulvi Irfan Ahmad, a former paramedic turned imam from Shopian, who is accused of supplying the posters and radicalising doctors linked to the plot.
The trail eventually took the police to Al Falah University in Faridabad, where doctors Muzammil Ahmad Ganaie and Shaheen Sayeed were arrested. From premises linked to the module, investigators seized around 360 kg of suspected ammonium nitrate along with nearly 2,900 kg of material used to assemble improvised explosive devices, including chemicals, detonators, wires and other bomb-making components.