Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Friday met the families of victims of the Nowgam “accidental” blast and handed over appointment letters on compassionate grounds.
Expressing gratitude to their families, Sinha said the entire nation stands “shoulder to shoulder with the families” to ensure they live a life of “comfort and dignity”.
On November 14, nine persons were killed in what the J&K DGP Nalin Prabhat described as an “accidental blast” of explosives that were being sampled for testing by the Forensic Sciences Laboratory at the Nowgam Police Station in Srinagar.
It was part of the recovery in the Delhi blast case, where police said that at least 2,900 kg of explosives were found. Prabhat had earlier stated that the blast took place due to the “unstable nature” of the explosives.
A member of the State Investigation Agency (SIA), three personnel of the FSL team, two crime scene photographers, two revenue officials who were part of the magistrate’s team, and a tailor who was associated with the team died in the blast at the police station.
The Nowgam police station was at the centre of the investigation that led to the unravelling of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) interstate terror module last month.
The police station was first involved in the case in October, when some posters related to the JeM appeared in the area. The probe, into a seemingly local issue at first, would lead police hundreds of kilometres away from the Valley, exposing the module.
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On Friday, the L-G said the whole country is proud of the J&K Police for “stopping terror in its tracks by unearthing and dismantling the terror network last month”. The module, allegedly behind the Delhi blast on November 10, was traced back to individuals, including doctors, from Jammu and Kashmir.
Sinha directed senior officers to “disrupt the terrorist financing pipeline and effectively counter radicalisation attempts by certain separatist elements”.
Sinha was accompanied by Principal Secretary Home, Chandraker Bharti; ADGP CID, Nitish Kumar; Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Anshul Garg; IGP Kashmir, V K Birdi among others.