A shopping-cum-residential complex belonging to local Auqaf was gutted in a massive overnight blaze in Aloosa village of north Kashmir’s Bandipora district.
According to the witnesses, the fire emerged around 2:00am and spread to the whole complex, which includes six shops and four residential rooms.
The locals said before the fire and emergency services could arrive, the blaze had already reduced the property to ashes.
Ghulam Mohammad, one of the shop owners said that all the shops were occupied. They included a medical laboratory, an embroidery, computer service and accessories shop and others like hosiery and departmental stores.
He said that the property worth lacs of rupees has been damaged in the blaze, the cause of which was not immediately known.