Just hours before the accidental explosion at the Nowgam Police Station in Jammu and Kashmir claimed nine lives, the young daughter of a tailor had pleaded with him to stay home.
According to a report by NDTV, Mohammad Shafi Parray had stepped out of his home despite his daughter pleading, “papa, don’t go," urging him to stay back because of the cold.
However, he comforted her, saying he just had some work to complete and would be back soon — words that tragically became his last, the report noted.
According to news agency PTI, 47-year-old Parray had spent November 14 — the day of the explosion — assisting police investigators as they packed and collected explosive samples recovered from a recently dismantled “white collar” terror module.
He had left home at 10 am for the task and returned briefly twice — first for Friday prayers and later in the evening for dinner — before heading back to finish the sampling work related to material seized from Faridabad.
It was during this final stretch of work late that night that a massive accidental explosion ripped through the Nowgam Police Station, killing nine people, including several police personnel and civilians.
Parray, the sole breadwinner of his family, died from his injuries. Initially, his relatives were informed that he had been wounded, but by early Saturday, police called them to identify his body.
A pall of grief settled over Wanabal as neighbours and relatives gathered at his home, their wails audible from a distance. Locals remembered him as a man of integrity — the president of the local mosque — who supported his wife, daughter, and two sons through his small tailoring shop at Wanabal Chowk.
Residents who rushed to the blast site recalled the devastation. Some thought they had heard an “air blast," while others found shattered windowpanes nearly a kilometre away.
Locals said they assisted police in picking up bodies and injured victims, with one man telling PTI he found an arm on the ground, and another said Parray’s body had no legs when they identified him.
The nine victims named by police included SIA Inspector, Asrar Ahmad Shah, Mohammad Shafi Parray, tailor (civilian), Showkat Ahmad, lab assistant FSL headquarters (civilian), Muzaffar Ahmad Khan Naib Tehsildar (civilian), Suhail Ahmad Rather, Chowkidar Revenue Department (civilian), Javaid Mansoor Rather, Constable photographer Crime Branch, Mohammad Amin, Head Constable FSL District Police Lines Srinagar, Arshad Ahmad Shah, Constable photographer Crime Branch and Aijaz Ahmad, Selection Grade Constable, FSL District Police Lines Srinagar.
The accidental explosion at Nowgam occurred at a time when agencies in Delhi were probing the November 10 Red Fort car blast, in which 13 people died.
As part of the expanding investigation, Delhi Police have detained three individuals, including two doctors from Haryana’s Al-Falah University, and registered two FIRs against the institution over UGC and NAAC-flagged irregularities.
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