Nowgam blast was 'avoidable' had SOPs been followed: Ex-officials

Former director of Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) RL Dhar and a few other experts have said the blast inside Nowgam police station could have been avoided if the protocol and standard operating procedures (SOPs) had been followed by officials at all levels.

Dhar said FSL employee Showkat Ahmad, who was killed in the blast, was not supposed to be there and the forensic team was not supposed to work during the night hours.

Experts including Dhar said officials deputed to the J&K FSL are non-technical which results in "mishaps like these".


Director general of J&K Police Nalin Prabhat, however, said it was "an accidental blast and any other speculation is unnecessary".

Nine people, including three FSL members, were killed and 32 others injured in the blast on November 14.

"This unfortunate incident was completely avoidable. We have lost lives and it's a murder. FSL is not trained in handling explosives. FSL is meant for detection and analysis. Besides, there should be an expert present at the spot. Why was a lab assistant there?" said Dhar.

He said that he had spoken to his colleagues and that everyone was hinting at the possibility of a "live explosive present in the recovery, which was not checked before the examination of the explosives".

"Ammonium nitrate on its own won't detonate. There must have been some live explosive in a container which was not checked," said Dhar.

Another expert, who has worked with the FSL for more than 40 years, said the police station was not a crime scene but a collection point which needed to be sanitised first.

He further said the "people at the helm of affairs at FSL" are non-technical, deployed from "education and police" departments, who have no expertise to deal with situations like these.

"Why was sampling happening so late in the night? Where was the senior officer?" he asked.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said the public deserves answers about what happened in Nowgam.