6 carts gutted in Handwara vegetable market

Kupwara, Nov 30: At least six vegetable carts were gutted in an early morning blaze on Thursday at Handwara main market leaving the affected cart owners helpless.

A cart owner said that while he was emerging from Masjid after offering Fajar prayers he heard the noise following which he rushed to the spot and found the raging flames.

"Although fire tenders reached the spot on time, six carts were gutted before the raging flames could be contained. Vegetables worth lakhs were damaged in the incident," he added.

A senior police officer told Greater Kashmir that prima facie it seems that due to short circuit fire erupted from a shop and spread to other adjacent carts later.
Later Deputy Commissioner Kupwara Ayushi Sudan paid a visit to the market and took stock of the situation. While talking to the media she said that the affected cart owners would be given some compensation
from the Red Cross fund.

"We will install CCTV cameras around this vegetable market to keep a close vigil so that such incidents would not occur in future," she added.
It may be recalled that two years back almost twenty carts were gutted in the same market.