SRINAGAR; 06, Sep 2012: After failing to reach any conclusion on the gutting of Dastgeer Sahab (RA) shrine, police have sent new samples to the Forensic Science Laboratory Srinagar to ascertain the cause of fire.
Peer Dastgeer Sahab shrine, a 250-year-old wooden landmark in Khanyar area of Srinagar dedicated to 11th-century Sufi saint Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jeelani (RA), was reduced to ashes in a devastating fire on June 26.
“We have sent new samples to FSL,” a senior police official associated with the investigation told Media on the basis of anonymity. He denied commenting on the claims of FSL officials that police had failed to preserve the scene of the incident. The assertion was made by the officials of FSL in a letter shot to the police after the latter raised certain queries.
The police officer said the previous FSL report was not clear. “That report had ruled out the use of any combustible substance. It had not been able to detect actual cause of fire,” he said.
“The new samples were preserved from day one,” he added.
When asked why the police had not been able to reach any conclusion or make any breakthrough in the probe, the officer said that investigations were in full swing. “We are questioning people and are looking into all angles of the incident,” he said.
Soon after the fire incident, Sajada Nisheen of the shrine had declined to buy electric short-circuit theory as a reason for the fire. “There was no electricity at the time of the incident. I cannot confirm or accept short circuit as the cause of fire from the dome,” he had said, demanding that the probe should be independent and transparent.
Police has registered a case of arson and the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted to probe the case has questioned around 30 people including the caretakers, Waqf and management personnel of the shrine.