High-level committee to look into Nowgam blast, say J&K Police

The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Thursday said a high-level committee has been constituted to probe the explosion inside the Nowgam police station in Srinagar, which killed nine people and left 32 injured.

Both the J&K Police and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had earlier described the November 14 incident as an “accidental detonation.” Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, who heads the Union Territory’s Home Department, subsequently ordered a formal investigation.

The administration constituted a high-level inquiry committee on November 16, chaired by the Principal Secretary (Home) and comprising the Inspector General of Police, Kashmir Zone; the District Magistrate, Srinagar; and a senior scientist from the CFSL.

Teams from the National Security Guard (NSG), National Investigation Agency (NIA), and Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) have since visited the site and collected samples.

A police spokesperson said that several “conjectures” and misleading claims had been circulating on social media.

“It is clarified that these are conjectures and efforts to mislead the public,” the spokesperson said. “It is reiterated that an accidental explosion occurred on November 14 while experts from the Forensic Science Laboratory were collecting samples from a large cache of recovered explosives.”

The explosives had been recovered by the J&K Police from Faridabad in Haryana after it had busted a “white-collar” terror module.

Questions have also been raised about the handling of the explosives. Police Director General Nalin Prabhat had earlier said the material was being managed “with utmost caution owing to its unstable and sensitive nature.”

Political leaders in the Valley have alleged lapses in the chain of handling and demanded accountability for the circumstances that led to the deadly explosion.