LUCKNOW, Sept. 2 -- Villagers in Behta stood stunned, watching their green field turn into a scene of chaos on Monday as police teams seized a large quantity of crackers from four hidden storage points. Barely 10km from Gudamba police station and on the edge of Lucknow's municipal limits near the Barabanki border, Behta has long existed in a 'grey zone' where an old, family-run but dangerous trade flourished unnoticed. Even people living a few feet away claim they knew nothing about it. "We had no idea what was going on inside their house," said Zaid, a neighbour whose home suffered severe damage in the blast on Sunday. According to gram pradhan Vinod Jaiswal, the operation was bigger than anyone imagined. "Alam and his wife Munni were continuing an old family business. Their relatives are spread across the village. Many are into the same illegal firecracker trade. Some have licenses, which they use to cover up the rest," he told HT. An officer told HT that the original licence to stock and sell firecrackers was in the name of Khatoon, wife of Alam's brother Munna. "After Munna's death, Alam applied for renewal under his son's name. The renewal was pending, yet the unit kept functioning on the old licence " the officer said. The house where Alam and Munni died lay in ruins, its debris spilling across the lane. The impact was so strong that windows of a school 400 metres away were shattered. At the second site, a rooftop solar panel, nearly 500 metres from the explosion, hung twisted and broken. The tragedy was also devastating for Aziz, 60, a daily-wager, who lives in a rented house near Alam's. His wife Raees, 50, and daughter Hoorjahan, 26, were injured in the blast. "Our house is gone, all food is also gone. I had Rs 30,000 for my wife's medical treatment...that too is lost," he lamented. Asked if he ever suspected anything, Aziz shook his head, saying: "Never, not once."...