SRINAGAR, India — A cache of confiscated explosives detonated inside a police station in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing at least nine people and injuring 32 others, 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, said Nalin Prabhat, the region's police director-general. He ruled out any foul play, saying it was an accident.
Most of the dead were police and forensic officials. Some of the injured were in critical condition, police said.
The huge blast ripped through the police station, setting it and multiple vehicles on fire. According to the news agency Press Trust of India, small successive explosions prevented immediate rescue operations.
A deadly car explosion
The police station 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 "heinous terror incident" carried out by "anti-national forces." The car blast happened hours after police in Kashmir said they had dismantled a suspected militant cell operating from the disputed region, arresting at least seven people, including two doctors from Indian cities, and seizing a large quantity of bomb-making material in the city of Faridabad, near New Delhi.
Indian security agencies have since carried out a series of raids in Kashmir as part of their investigation into the car blast, questioning hundreds while detaining scores others.
Indian police said Saturday they used DNA to identify the car's driver and that he was a Kashmiri doctor. Government forces blew up his family home in the southern district of Pulwama on Thursday night, officials said.
In the past, troops have demolished homes of suspects they accuse of being tied to militants fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir as a punishment.
Stored explosives
Police had brought the explosive material seized in Faridabad to Kashmir as part of their investigation and were "kept securely in an open area" at the police station, where the investigation that led to the suspected militant cell began last month, according to Prabhat, the top officer.
Prabhat said a team of experts was taking samples for forensic investigation when the blast occurred, calling it an "accidental explosion."
"Any other speculation into the cause of this incident is unnecessary," he 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.
