Sept. 12: Scores of people were "thrown in the air like pebbles" when a blast caused by stockpiled mining explosives killed at least 90 in a busy area of Petlawad town in Madhya Pradesh's Jhabua district this morning.
More than 200 others were injured when the 8am explosion, which occurred in a seed and fertiliser shop, ripped through the adjacent Sethia restaurant where a sizeable number of customers including schoolchildren were eating breakfast.
Reports said the casualties included day labourers sitting nearby before starting work, passengers at a nearby bus stand, and a group of Gujarat-bound travellers standing outside the eatery. At least 20 of the injured are critical.
Police are unsure what triggered the explosion. One theory is that a cooking gas cylinder burst in the eatery and the fire spread to the shop, which had a huge cache of gelatine sticks and detonators, ordinarily meant for stone-crushing and mining.
According to a PTI report, the shop's owner, Rajan Kumar Kaswa, has a licence to use explosive material for digging wells in rocky areas.
Local people said the shop was in brazen violation of rules that say such explosives cannot be stored within 100 metres of habitations or high-tension wires. Nor did the owner meet the other norms, they alleged, such as having fire extinguishers, a pile of sand and a water tank nearby.
Residents said that during a jan sunwai (public hearing) by the subdivisional magistrate a month ago, they had lodged a formal complaint saying the stockpile in the middle of the town was a serious threat to public safety. But the administration did not act.
Salman Sheikh, a photographer, said he was sipping tea at a stall about 150 metres from the restaurant when he heard "a huge explosion".
"Everyone thought it was a cooking gas cylinder blast. Within a minute, a bigger explosion occurred. From a distance, I could see people being thrown in the air like pebbles."
When Sheikh reached closer, he says, "I was shaken to the core - limbs were scattered all over the place."
Seema Alawa, Jhabua additional superintendent of police, said the blast had flattened four houses, including the two-storey and three-storey buildings that housed the shop and the restaurant, respectively.
State Congress chief Arun Yadav alleged that Kaswa was part of the BJP's trader cell and said this aspect needed to be "thoroughly probed".
