Indian police officers pay their respects to victims of the accidental Kashmir police station blast that killed at least nine and injured 32 others on Friday night. Photo by Farooq Khan/EPA
Nov. 15 (UPI) — At least nine died and 32 were injured at a police station in Kashmir when officials accidentally triggered an explosion while examining materials used to make bombs.
The materials were to undergo forensic examination, but a “very unfortunate” incident caused them to explode shortly before midnight on Friday, regional Director-General of Police Nalin Prabhat told media.
“Any speculation into the cause of this incident is unnecessary,” Prabhat said, without detailing how the deadly detonation occurred.
The explosion happened in Nowgam in the India-administered province as police inspected the materials that they seized while investigating a terrorism network, The New York Times reported.
The 6,000 pounds of materials and other weapons were seized in Faridabad while investigating a car bomb that killed eight in the Indian capital of New Delhi on Monday and has been deemed a terror attack.
Officials say the materials were tied to a Pakistan-based organization called Jaish-e-Mohammed.
The raid also resulted in the arrests of six people, four of whom were identified as medical doctors whose licenses were revoked on Friday.
Friday night’s explosion severely damaged the police stationand nearby buildings also were damaged.
Body parts were found up to 650 feet from the blast site, and several vehicles were “engulfed in flames and reduced to charred husks,” police told media in a prepared statement.
Regional Lt. Gov. Manoj Sinha ordered an investigation to determine the explosion’s cause.