J&K govt announces Rs 10 lakh ex-gratia for Nowgam blast victims, Rs 1 lakh for injured

The J&K government on Saturday announced a major ex-gratia relief package for the victims of the devastating Nowgam police station blast, declaring Rs 10 lakh compensation for the families of those killed and Rs 1 lakh for those severely injured, to be disbursed from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.

The announcement comes as Srinagar grapples with the shock of the late-night explosion that claimed nine lives and left 27 others injured, most of them police personnel and forensic team members on active investigative duty.

Among the 27 injured, 24 are serving police personnel, while three civilians who happened to be inside the premises at the time also suffered serious wounds. All of them were shifted to different hospitals across the city for specialised treatment.


Officials said the explosives that triggered the fatal blast had been brought to Srinagar from Haryana's Faridabad, in relation to the recent Red Fort car blast, where investigators recently uncovered 360 kilograms of chemicals from a rented flat linked to arrested doctor Muzammil Ganaie.

The seized mix—comprising ammonium nitrate, potassium nitrate, sulphur and other IED components—was split between the Forensic Lab and the Nowgam police station, where the core case against the so-called “white-collar” terror module was being probed.

It was during routine sampling and analysis of this cache that the accidental explosion tore through the police station shortly around midnight, ripping apart sections of the building and stunning the investigation teams working inside. Rescue operations were initially delayed due to a series of small follow-up explosions, forcing bomb disposal units to wait before clearing the debris.

The incident has prompted a major internal review within the security and forensic apparatus. Senior officials said all handling protocols—from storage to sampling procedures—are now under scrutiny as authorities attempt to establish the precise trigger behind the catastrophic accident.