SRINAGAR, India (AP) — A cache of confiscated explosives detonated inside a police station in Indian-controlled Kashmir, leaving at least eight people dead and 27 others injured, police said on Saturday. The blast occurred in the Nowgam area of Srinagar, the region’s main city, late Friday when a team of forensic experts and police were […]
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At least 8 killed in huge blast at a police station in Indian-controlled Kashmir
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SRINAGAR, India (AP) — A cache of confiscated explosives detonated inside a police station in Indian-controlled Kashmir, leaving at least eight people dead and 27 others injured, police said on Saturday.
The blast occurred in the Nowgam area of Srinagar, the region’s main city, late Friday when a team of forensic experts and police were examining the explosive material, police said.
The huge blast ripped through the police station and set the compound and multiple vehicles on fire. According to news agency Press Trust of India, small successive explosions prevented immediate rescue operations by the bomb disposal squad.
Most of the dead were police and forensic officials. Some of the injured were in critical condition, police said.
The blast came days after Monday’s deadly car explosion in New Delhi, which killed at least eight people near the city’s historic Red Fort. Indian officials called it a terror attack carried out by “anti-national forces.”
The explosion in Indian capital occurred hours after after police in Kashmir said they had dismantled a suspected militant cell operating from the disputed region to the outskirts of New Delhi. At least seven people, including two doctors, were arrested, and police seized weapons and a large quantity of bomb-making material in Faridabad, a city in Haryana state, which is near New Delhi.
Indian security agencies have carried out a series of raids in Kashmir since then as part of their investigation into the car blast. Police said one of the suspects, also a Kashmiri doctor working in Faridabad, was driving the car that exploded.
Police had brought the explosive material seized in Faridabad to Kashmir as part of their investigation and part of it was stored at the police station, which was investigating the primary case, officials said.
India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir but both claim the territory in its entirety.
Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle.