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New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) A day after the massive accidental blast inside Srinagar’s Naugam police station, defense expert Captain Anil Gaur (retd) termed the tragedy as a serious case of mishandling during explosive testing, warning that even a small mistake can lead to disastrous consequences when sensitive materials are being processed.
“It is a very unfortunate incident. I would say that nine of our personnel lost their lives and about 27 policemen present at the station were injured… It is being said that a detonator accidentally went into someone’s hand,” Captain Gaur told IANS.
Explaining the possible chain of events, he said the explosives teams had been examining and sampling the recovered explosives and weapons for the last two days and a single mistake could lead to a deadly blast.
He said, “It seems that the detonator might have slipped out of someone’s hand, causing the explosion. Ammonium nitrate is not an explosive substance until it explodes. Detonators are very sensitive – when one explodes, the others can catch and when they explode, other explosives can catch fire. Handling must be done with utmost care, and detonators should never be kept with the main explosives. Basically, this happened due to mishandling.”
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir DGP Nalin Prabhat on Saturday rejected any terror angle and called the blast an unfortunate accident. Addressing a press conference at the police control room, he said some of the theories being circulated were “unnecessary speculations”.
“A huge quantity of explosive material was brought to Naugam police station from Faridabad and kept safely in an open space. Due to the massive nature of the recovery, the process of taking samples of explosive material was going on for the last two days, yesterday and day before yesterday, to forward the samples for further forensic and chemical examination,” the DGP said.
He said the seized material was being handled with utmost care due to its volatile and sensitive nature.
“Unfortunately around 11.20 pm on Friday night, the seized material exploded accidentally. Any further speculations regarding the cause of this incident are unnecessary. In this unfortunate incident, nine people have lost their lives. One Special Investigation Agency personnel, two revenue officers, three FLS team personnel, two crime branch photographers and a tailor have lost their lives.”
Investigators have now focused on technical assessment, with both experts and police stressing that the tragedy appears to be the result of an accidental chain reaction triggered during sampling.
–IANS
RS/RAD