Srinagar, Nov 16: An uneasy calm prevailed in the Nowgam area, a day after a powerful explosion at the Nowgam Police Station left nine persons dead and 32 others injured.
Fear has gripped the residents who are yet to come to terms with the situation as the blast triggered panic and unrest among them, particularly the families of victims and those living nearby.
On Sunday, an eerie silence was witnessed in the lanes and bylanes heading to the Police Station and the residence of the tailor Muhammad Shafi Parry, who lost his life in the explosion.
The families whose houses were massively damaged in the blast have shifted to their families, while the residents of other lanes are living in fear.
“We get so frightened when we recall the incident. The intensity of the blast was so huge that our house was shaken,” said a nearby shopkeeper.
The residents said the casualties would have increased if the blast had occurred early in the evening.
“My elderly parents were sleeping. Had they been awake, they would have had a heart attack,” said Parray’s neighbour.
Another resident, while recalling the conversation with his relatives, said part of a body had dropped in their room after the blast.
“My aunt told me that a severed head dropped in their bedroom when the blast occurred in Nowgam,” said Rouf Ahmad, another resident of Nowgam.
All the shops in the area remained closed while the connecting link roads witnessed a thin flow of traffic.
“We are yet to come out of shock. The sound of the blast was massive,” another local said.
The residents who have not left their houses assemble outside the residence of Parray and recount the horror.
“I was about to sleep when the blast happened, triggering panic in the family. I gathered my frightened kids and calmed them as we all were shaken. Window panes were broken,” a resident shared with a neighbour.
Amid the uneasy calm in the area, the lane heading to the house of Parray has become a meeting point for the neighbours who come to express condolences with the family.
The neighbours recall their last conversations with Parray, who was planning to get his son married after renovating the house.
The lane heading to Nowgam Police Station, situated in a densely populated residential area, has been kept out of bounds for the locals, with the area being sealed by the security forces.
While the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Saturday said that the cause of the blast was being ascertained, a team of senior officers from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and National Security Grid (NSG) on Sunday visited the blast spot to conduct investigations.
The officers from NIA and NSG’s Bomb Disposal Squad – a specialised team remained stationed inside Nowgam Police Station for hours together.
The officers were also accompanied by a team from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL).
The officers of the central teams took the samples from the blast site, and the entire procedure was photographed and videographed.
“The teams will take the samples to CFSL for further investigations,” an official said.
