August 27, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 28, 1424

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MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 26: A senior police official said on Tuesday that the explosion in a fireworks shop that left six people dead and over a dozen wounded in the AJK capital was an “accident.” However, the police were still investigating.

“Initial investigations show that it was an accident, but we have formed a special committee to further investigate the incident,” Deputy Inspector-General of Police Sheikh Tahir Qayyum told Dawn here.

The committee headed by DSP Nasrullah and comprising two senior inspectors had been directed to submit its report in the shortest possible time, he added.

The DIG said that the civil and military experts were convinced that it was not a terrorist act.

“The foremost objective of any terrorist act is to terrorize maximum number of people in that area, but that thing was not seen in the incident in question,” he said.

The explosion occurred at 7:45pm when most of the shops were closed and traffic was thin at the otherwise bustling Bank Road, the DIG said and pointed out that if it were a terrorist act, the perpetrators would have chosen peak hours for the blast.

AJK Civil Defence Department’s bomb disposal squad officials were of the view that the cause of the incident was “carelessness” of the fireworks shop owner.

TRAINING: One of the main groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir on Tuesday denied Indian charges of kidnapping Muslim boys for forced guerrilla training, adds AFP.

The Hizbul Mujahedin, speaking here said the accusations by Indian police were “ridiculous and baseless propaganda.”

“This is a ridiculous claim which no sane person would ever believe,” Hizb spokesman Salim Hashmi said.

“It never happens, nowhere in the world that you kidnap people, forcibly provide them armed training and then launch them in the battlefield.”

An Indian police spokesman said after the boys were rescued from forests in the southern district of Doda they told police they were being kidnapped to undergo weapons training.