Over 30 shops, eight residential structures and several vending huts were gutted in main market Gandoh in district Doda in a devastating blaze in the wee hours of Saturday.

Property worth millions of rupees was reduced to ashes, but there was no report of any serious injuries.

Reports said that on the intervening night of Friday the main market Gandoh, located just 500 metres from the police station, went up in flames.

“The fire, which perhaps started around 1am was noticed by a patrolling team of Police and SSB at 1.45 am, which immediately raised an alarm and informed fire tenders, which reached the spot at 3.30am as nearest fire station is located at Thathri, 45 km from Gandoh. Meanwhile sleuths of Police and SSB along with locals tried to control the flames,” said SDPO Gandoh Sunny Gupta.

“Police has taken the cognizance of fire incident and started investigating, preliminary reports suggest that the fire started due to the shot circuit,” SDPO said.

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Jammu and Kashmir and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad while expressing shock and grief over the tragic fire incident instructed the divisional and district administration to provide immediate help and support to all those affected due the devastating blaze.

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