'Papa, Don't Go': Daughter Of Tailor Killed In Nowgam Explosion Had Pleaded Before His Death

Last Updated:November 16, 2025, 07:20 IST

Tailor Mohammad Shafi Parray, who died in the Nowgam Police Station explosion, had left home despite his daughter pleading with him to stay back, a report has claimed.

Srinagar: Relatives of Mohammad Shafi Parray, a tailor who was killed in an accidental explosion in Nowgam (Photo: PTI)

Hours before the accidental explosion at the Nowgam Police Station in Jammu and Kashmir, the minor daughter of one of the deceased, tailor Mohammad Shafi Parray, had asked him to stay back home, an NDTV report has claimed.

Mohammad Shafi Parray had stepped out of his home despite his daughter pleading, “Papa, don’t go," urging him to stay back because of the cold.

However, he reassured her, saying he needed to finish work at the police station and would return soon, words that tragically became his last, the report claimed.

According to PTI, 47-year-old Parray had spent the entire day of November 14, the day of the explosion, as a conscientious citizen by assisting police investigators pack and collect samples of explosives recovered from a recently busted “white collar" terror module.

He was taken by police at 10 am for the task and kept returning home briefly, once for Friday prayers, and later in the evening for dinner, before leaving again to complete the sampling work linked to material seized from Faridabad.

It was during this final stretch of work late that night that a massive accidental explosion ripped through the Nowgam Police Station, killing nine people, including several police personnel and civilians.

Parray, the lone breadwinner of his family, succumbed to his injuries. His family was first told he had been hurt, but by early Saturday, police asked them to identify his body.

Grief engulfed Wanabal as neighbours and relatives gathered at his home, where cries could be heard from afar. Locals remembered him as a man of strong character, the president of the local mosque, and someone who supported his wife, daughter and two sons through his modest tailoring shop at Wanabal Chowk.

Residents who rushed to the blast site recalled the devastation. Some thought they had heard an “air blast," while others found shattered windowpanes nearly a kilometre away.

Locals said they assisted police in picking up bodies and injured victims, with one man telling PTI he found an arm on the ground, and another said Parray’s body had no legs when they identified him.

The nine victims named by police included SIA Inspector, Asrar Ahmad Shah, Mohammad Shafi Parray, tailor (civilian), Showkat Ahmad, lab assistant FSL headquarters (civilian), Muzaffar Ahmad Khan Naib Tehsildar (civilian), Suhail Ahmad Rather, Chowkidar Revenue Department (civilian), Javaid Mansoor Rather, Constable photographer Crime Branch, Mohammad Amin, Head Constable FSL District Police Lines Srinagar, Arshad Ahmad Shah, Constable photographer Crime Branch and Aijaz Ahmad, Selection Grade Constable, FSL District Police Lines Srinagar.

The accidental explosion at Nowgam occurred at a time when agencies in Delhi were probing the November 10 Red Fort car blast, in which 13 people died.

As part of the expanding investigation, Delhi Police have detained three individuals, including two doctors from Haryana’s Al-Falah University, and registered two FIRs against the institution over UGC and NAAC-flagged irregularities.

The Crime Branch has filed cheating and forgery cases following these regulatory findings and visited the university’s Okhla office on Saturday.

Officials said the detained doctors, Mohammad and Mustakim, were known to Dr Umar Nabi, the driver of the Hyundai i20 that exploded near the Red Fort, and had links with Dr Muzammil Ganaie, arrested in connection with the alleged “white collar terror module."

Questioning revealed that one of the doctors was in Delhi on the day of the blast for an AIIMS interview. Another man, Dinesh alias Dabbu, has also been detained for illegally selling fertiliser, which investigators believe may be connected to the module’s procurement of explosive material.

Teams have been examining CCTV clips, including one showing the violent tremors inside the Red Fort Metro station at the moment of the blast, and another from Faridabad showing Umar taking out his phone and asking someone to charge it.

Police have also intensified checks across Faridabad, verifying mosques, tenants, fertiliser shops, guesthouses and individuals from Jammu and Kashmir.

Visitor records from a mosque near Ramlila Maidan have been sought, and vehicles from the Sunehri Masjid parking zone, where the i20 remained for three hours, are being examined.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has reopened two entry gates of the Red Fort station that were shut after the explosion.

ALSO READ | Powerful Primary Explosive Found In Car Used In Delhi Blast, Nowgam Link Under Probe: Sources

Vani Mehrotra

Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

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