An accidental explosion at a house in downtown Srinagar has exposed a militant attempt to attack the convocation of Kashmir University which will be attended by Vice President Hamid Ansari, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Governor N N Vohra on Saturday.

An employee of the university died while two persons were injured in the improvised explosive device (IED) blast. “The person who died in the explosion is an employee of the university. The other two are seriously wounded,” Director General of J&K Police Kuldeep Khuda said. “We were not able to interrogate them as yet. They certainly were up to something.”

The explosion took place late last night in Lal Bazaar, two km from the university campus. Senior Superintendent of Police, Srinagar, Ahfad-ul-Mujtabha told The Indian Express that Firdous Ali Dar, a former militant who worked in the university as a telephone lineman had met another former militant Ghulam Ahmad Ganai at the house of Dar’s brother-in-law, Riyaz Ahmad Bhat. “They were fiddling with an IED which exploded, killing Dar and injuring Ganai seriously. Riyaz lost an one arm in the explosion,” Mujtabha said. “We also recovered three grenades and an AK-47.”

DGP Khuda said the militants would have never been able to smuggle the explosives inside the campus. “We have a three-tier security and it is impossible to sneak through it,” he said. Khuda said that he visited the campus this afternoon to take stock of the security arrangements. When contacted, Vice Chancellor Prof Riyaz Punjabi said he did not have any information about the incident.