Nine people were killed and 31 others injured in an accidental blast on 15 November in Jammu and Kashmir’s Nowgam police station. These were completely unnecessary deaths caused by obvious negligence and lack of the required expertise to handle such explosives. The negligence is particularly on the part of the higher authorities who did not make the proper safety arrangements and deploy properly trained personnel to deal with the matter. They obviously did not have the experience to deal with such a matter nor knowledge of the complexities involved. It can only be hoped that the right lessons will be learned to properly deal with such matters in the future.
Nations and societies evolve on the basis of such challenges. Where there are setbacks the best that can be done is to ensure that the kind of mistake is not repeated and the fundamental flaws that led to such ineptitude are removed. This requires, of course, going back to the very basics of the forensics expertise and explosives management. The explosives in this case involved crude but dangerous ammonium nitrate and ‘triacetone triperoxide’ (TATP) whose handling is heavily regulated but is in extensive use. At least the minimum skill required should have been available to store these safely. If this is the case with material recovered that is widely used, how would the ‘specialists’ deal with the more sophisticated material that is used in the present day, particularly by advanced nations like Israel, the US, Russia, etc.?
It must be examined whether the experts in India are confined to narrow areas of expertise and there is lack of cross-domain interaction of the kind necessary. This incident should not be written off as one of a kind that will not repeat itself. In fact, it has sent an important message to the highest authorities right up to the Union Home Minister. Ramp up the quality of personnel – not just on the ground but in the topmost ranks; prepare them according to present day needs. Rather than having a general cadre of police and security officials, specialisation in particular operations should become an established practice. The challenges are becoming more sophisticated – the response should be of a similar level.
