Blast at police station in Indian Kashmir kills nine, injures 27

NEW DELHI – At least nine people were killed and 27 injured when a pile of confiscated explosives blew up at a police station in Indian Kashmir, the region’s police chief said on Nov 15, days after a car blast in New Delhi killed eight people.

The dead included policemen, government officials and forensic staff who were examining the explosives at the time, Mr Nalin Prabhat, director-general of police for the federally administered region of Jammu and Kashmir, told a news conference.

He said the cause of the blast late on Nov 14 and the extent of the damage were being investigated.

Indicating there was no militant involvement in the incident, Mr Prabhat said forensic and chemical examinations of previously recovered explosive materials were under way when “an accidental explosion” occurred.

“Any other speculation into the cause of this incident is unnecessary,” he said.

The identification of the bodies was under way, as some have been completely burned, a police source said.

“The intensity of the blast was such that some body parts were recovered from nearby houses, around 100m to 200m away from the police station,” the source said.

Earlier, a local police official told Reuters that an explosion had ripped through Nowgam police station. The official said fire had engulfed the compound and fire tenders had been rushed to the spot.

The blast comes four days after

a deadly car explosion

in India’s capital Delhi, which killed at least eight people in what India has called a terror incident.

Nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan have for decades fought periodic wars over the disputed region of Kashmir, which they both claim in full and rule only in part. REUTERS