Srinagar: A major fire broke out on Sunday inside Nawa-i-Subh complex, which houses National Conference Headquarters and other government offices, causing damage to the building and destroying records of JK Cements Ltd (JKCL).
“Fire broke out at 6.00 am in the building housing office of JK Cements which spread to nearby Nawai-e-Subah (headquarters of National Conference),” an official of the Fire and Emergency Services department said.
“Fire has caused extensive damage to the building,” said NC spokesperson, Junaid Azim Mattu. “Besides fire, water-logging caused by fire fighting has further damaged the structure.” But, he said, all documents besides rare objects of the party were safe. “We are yet to carry any damage assessment.”
Located at the banks of Jhelum near Srinagar’s Zero Bridge, Nawa-e-Subah (NeS) or the new morning had earlier suffered damages in 2014 September floods.
Sunday’s flames that erupted in Kashmir’s grand old political party’s headquarters are the second instance when NC HQ was caught in a fire.
Earlier flames erupted in NC’s erstwhile bastion-Mujahid Manzil (MM) in old city. A hotbed of Kashmir politics for around seven decades, MM was torched by ‘suspected militants’ in 1994-forcing NC to shift its headquarters to NeS complex in the secured uptown.
In fact, last year in November, NC had completed twenty years of shifting its political base from Mujahid Manzil (MM) to Nawa-e-Subh.
Fourteen fire tenders were rushed to the scene and the blaze was brought under control. Four employees of the Fire department sustained injuries while dousing it, a Fire department official said.
He said while the JK Cements building suffered extensive damage, Nawai-e-Subah also suffered some partial damage in the incident.