Explosives reportedly detonate during forensic investigation as part of probe into earlier blast in India’s capital New Delhi.
By Alastair McCready and News Agencies
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At least nine people have been killed and more than 30 others injured after a cache of confiscated explosives detonated in a police station in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city.
The stockpile exploded late on Friday night at a police station in the Nowgam area, south of Srinagar.
One unnamed source told the Reuters news agency that identification efforts were under way as some bodies “have been completely burned”.
“The intensity of the blast was such that some body parts were recovered from nearby houses, around 100-200 metres [110-220 yards] away from the police station,” the source said.
Most of those killed were policemen and forensic team officials who were examining the explosives at the time of the detonation, unnamed sources told Indian broadcaster NDTV. Two officials from the Srinagar administration also died in the blast.
With five people still in critical condition, the death toll could continue to climb, according to the media outlet.
“Not a terror attack. Police say it’s a very unfortunate incident,” NDTV’s senior executive editor Aditya Raj Kaul said in a post on social media.
“The blast happened when a forensics team and the police were checking the explosive material stored at the police station,” he said.
#BREAKING: J&K Police Top Officials tell me that the massive blast at Nowgam Police Station around 11:20pm tonight happened when FSL team along with Police and Tehsildar were inspecting the large Ammonium Nitrate explosive which was confiscated earlier. Casualties in the blast.… pic.twitter.com/67U143jOFg
— Aditya Raj Kaul (@AdityaRajKaul) November 14, 2025
The huge blast came days after Monday’s deadly car explosion in New Delhi, which killed at least 12 people near the city’s historic Red Fort and which officials have called a “terror” incident.
The explosion in the Indian capital occurred just hours after police arrested several people and seized explosive materials as well as assault rifles.
Police said the suspects were linked to Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), a Pakistan-based group that is seeking to end Indian rule in Kashmir, and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, a Kashmir offshoot linked to JeM.
Police in Indian-administered Kashmir also detained more than 650 people as part of their investigation following the New Delhi car blast.
According to reports, the Nowgam police station, where the blast took place on Friday, had led an investigation into posters that were displayed around the area by JeM, warning it would carry out attacks on security forces and “outsiders”.
Police said their investigation into the posters exposed a “white-collar terror ecosystem, involving radicalised professionals and students in contact with foreign handlers, operating from Pakistan and other countries”.
Police also recovered nearly 3,000kg (3 tonnes) of explosive material, saying the armed group was stockpiling enough to carry out a major attack in India.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and both claim the Himalayan territory.
The two countries have fought three wars over Kashmir since they were partitioned in 1947, and tensions remain high between New Delhi and Islamabad over the status of the territory.
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