Three business establishments were gutted in two separate fire incidents in Rajouri district on Wednesday.
As per officials, fire broke out around 2 am in Malik Marketlocality in the main Rajouri town.
In the incident, two shops, including an electronicappliances store belonging to Sushil Kumar and a cobbler shop being run byMohammad Sageer, were gutted completely.
Eye witnesses said that a small scale explosion also tookplace which caused damage to some nearby structures as well. A motorcycleparked in front of the shops was also gutted completely.
Rajouri fire station officer, Maqbool Hussain said thatafter hectic efforts flames in two shops of Malik Market were controlled, butboth the shops were fully damaged till then.
The locals demanded financial aid to the owners of the shopand also called for an in-depth probe to ascertain the cause of the fire.
In another incident that took place at about 5 am, a liquorshop located in Dhangri area of Rajouri was damaged in the blaze.
Police have started investigations.