Forensic error, not terror, blamed for Nowgam police station tragedy: Officials

Preliminary investigations into the accidental explosion that ripped through the Nowgam police station late Friday night, killing nine people, suggest that the use of excessive lighting by the forensic team may have triggered the massive blast, officials said Sunday.

The explosion, which authorities maintain was an accident and not a terror attack, occurred around 11:20 pm while a team was extracting samples from the final boxes of seized explosive material transported from Al-Falah University in Faridabad, Haryana.

The area has been visited by teams from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory and experts from the elite National Security Guards for collecting samples.

The officials believe the last few boxes contained a liquid substance -- likely a mixture of Acetophenone, Hydrogen Peroxide, and Sulphuric Acid -- and in order to examine the liquid substance closely, the lighting arrangement was scaled up, leading to the massive explosion.

While Acetophenone itself is a common industrial chemical, it is a crucial precursor for creating Acetone Peroxide, a highly dangerous and sensitive improvised explosive.

The combination of the chemicals, coupled with external heat from the intensified lighting, or potential fumes from the Sulphuric Acid, may have caused the premature detonation, the officials said.

Both Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police Nalin Prabhat and Joint Secretary (Kashmir) Prashant Lokhande had issued identical statements on Saturday, firmly dismissing speculation of a terror attack.

"Due to the unstable and sensitive nature of the recovery, the sampling process, the handling was being done with extreme caution, with utmost caution by the FSL team," Prabhat and Lokhande had said.

"However, unfortunately, during this course, last night around 11.20 pm, an accidental explosion took place," they had said in statements before the media in Srinagar and New Delhi.

The sampling of the voluminous 360 kg cache of chemicals -- including Ammonium Nitrate, Potassium Nitrate and Sulphur -- had been underway for two days. The materials were transported to the Nowgam police station because it was the registration point for the original case.

The massive blast severely damaged the police station building and affected adjacent structures.

Among the deceased was Mohammad Shafi Parray (47), a popular local tailor and the sole breadwinner for his family. Many politicians visited his house and assured assistance to his family.

Also killed was SIA Inspector Israr Ahmad Shah, a 2011 police force entrant known as a soft-spoken and helpful officer, survived by his wife, two young children and elderly parents in Kupwara district.

The entire 'white-collar' terror module was busted by Srinagar Police after it began an investigation into the pasting of posters that threatened police and security forces on walls in Bunpora, Nowgam, in mid-October.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Srinagar) Dr G V Sundeep Chakravarthy personally led the investigation, and the CCTV footage analysis led to the arrest of the first three suspects -- Arif Nisar Dar alias Sahil, Yasir-ul-Ashraf, and Maqsood Ahmad Dar alias Shahid.

Their interrogation led to the arrest of Maulvi Irfan Ahmad, a former paramedic turned Imam, who allegedly supplied the posters and radicalised the doctors.

The trail led the investigators to Al Falah University in Faridabad, where Dr Muzzafar Ganaie and Dr Shaheen Sayeed were arrested, and the huge chemical cache was seized.

The investigators believe a core trio of doctors -- Dr Ganaie, Umar Nabi (the driver of an explosives-laden car that exploded near the Red Fort on November 10, killing 13 people), and Muzzaffar Rather (absconding) -- were running the module.