Nocturnal fire damages two dozen shops at Army’s 17 Infantry Brigade HQ
Aatif Qayoom
Handwara: A massive fire late night on Wednesday damaged around two dozen shops and goods worth crores turned into ashes at the Army’s 17 Infantry Brigade in Nowagam area of Mawer in north Kashmir’s Handwara.
According to reports fire emerged in one of the shops located in the shopping complex and spread to nearby shops and damaged around two dozen shops.
The shop owners said that the fire broke out at around 11:00 PM and engulfed the whole shopping complex, damaging at least 22 shops belonging to civilians including the non-locals at Lawoosa in Nowgam.
Manzoor Ahmad, one of the owners running a shop said that the fire broke out at around 11:00 PM, adding that nobody among them was allowed to enter the premises and even this time all are waiting outside to be allowed to visit the spot and ascertain the damage.
“Whatever the stock accumulation was done in recent days, has turned into ashes and nothing belonging to the owners could be saved,” he said.
Manzoor said that ATM, Post office and engineering store belonging to the Army brigade also gutted in the fire incident but as of now none among them were allowed to enter within the Army unit.
He also said that as of now, “we are not being informed about the actual cause of the fire.”
Zahoor Ahmad, another affected shopkeeper said that all the shops are shut at 08:00 PM regularly but the fire has broke out at 11:00 PM, engulfing the entire shopping mall.
Nearly three buildings have gutted in the fire incident including the residential place given to the shopkeepers and the cause of the fire isn’t known yet, he said.
Soon after the incident the fire tenders and Qalamabad police rushed to the spot and doused the flames.
Meanwhile, a police officer also confirmed the fire incident and said the cause of fire is yet to be known. He however, said that the investigation has taken up in this regard.
