Srinagar, Nov 15: When the thunderous Nowgam blast shattered Srinagar\u2019s quiet night, 50-year-old Mohammad Shafi Parray\u2014a father of three\u2014was thought to be asleep at home. Instead, he was inside Nowgam Police Station, not as an accused or an officer, but as a tailor called in for a brief stitching job.<\/p>\n
Shafi, a resident of the adjoining locality, was known across Nowgam for his modest tailoring shop along the Wanabal\u2013Nowgam road, a small space where school students and shopkeepers often stopped to get their uniforms or trousers altered.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was honest and humble. Always busy, always smiling,\u201d said a neighbour, standing outside his shuttered shop on Saturday morning, while speaking to the news agency\u2014Kashmir News Observer (KNO).<\/p>\n
According to neighbours, Shafi had visited the police station a day before, for some stitching work and returned home briefly.<\/p>\n
On Friday night, he was again called for a similar task, but this time, he never made it back.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told us he would return in half an hour or so,\u201d recalled his mother, her voice trembling. \u201cWe waited and waited. Then we heard the blast. Shafiyoo\u2026 Shafiyoo\u2026 kutei goukk (where did you go),\u201d she wailed, as she remembered their last conversation.<\/p>\n
Moments after the explosion, a fire engulfed the police station building. When rescuers reached the site, they found \u2018charred debris\u2019 and body parts among it, the remains of Shafi Parray.<\/p>\n
The blast, which killed nine people including police officials, forensic experts and revenue officers, was described by police as \u201caccidental.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials said it occurred during the inspection of a cache of seized explosives, suspected to be \u2018ammonium nitrate\u2019 brought from Faridabad, Haryana earlier this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe explosion happened during sampling of the seized material,\u201d said DGP Nalin Prabhat, confirming the blast was accidental.<\/p>\n
The explosion\u2019s intensity shattered windows across Nowgam and sent debris flying hundreds of meters. Locals described scenes of panic and disbelief. \u201cWe saw smoke rising from the police station and heard cries for help. The sound was louder than anything we have ever heard,\u201d said one resident who rushed to the spot minutes after the blast.<\/p>\n
At Shafi\u2019s home, grief hung heavy. His two sons and daughter sat quietly beside their mother as relatives and neighbours offered condolences. The verandah of their modest home had turned into a mourning space.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a simple man earning a simple living,\u201d said one of his relatives. \u201cHe had nothing to do with explosives or police work. He was just doing his job.\u201d<\/p>\n
As investigations continue into how a routine forensic process turned deadly, Shafi\u2019s unfinished stitching job remains folded on his wooden table at \u201cParray Tailors\u201d a silent reminder of a man who went to mend fabric and instead, lost his life to a blast that tore through the city\u2019s calm. (KNO)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Srinagar, Nov 15: When the thunderous Nowgam blast shattered Srinagar\u2019s quiet night, 50-year-old Mohammad Shafi Parray\u2014a father of three\u2014was thought to be asleep at home. Instead, he was inside Nowgam Police Station, not as an accused or an officer, but as a tailor called in for a brief stitching job. Shafi, a resident of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news","category-kt-front"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4065,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063\/revisions\/4065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmirthunder.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}