Two Hizb militants arrested 33 years after Mirwaiz Moulvi murder

The state investigation agency of Jammu and Kashmir Police on Tuesday claimed to have tracked and arrested two of the accused allegedly involved in the assassination of Mirwaiz Moulvi Farooq in May 1990. The duo, identified as Javaid Ahmad Bhat and Zahoor Bhat, both residents of Srinagar, have been arrested from the valley after 33 years of the killing.

"Five terrorists, led by Abdullah Bangroo of Hizb ul Mujahideen, were involved in the killing of Mirwaiz Moulvi Farooq. Two of them -- Bangroo and Abdul Rehman Shigan -- got killed in encounters with security forces in the 1990s. Ayub Dar has been convicted and is serving life sentence. Only Zahoor and Javaid were absconding till now," said RR Swain, special director general of the CID wing of J&K police. According to police officials, after the assassination they had allegedly gone underground and were hiding in Nepal and Pakistan among other places. "The two surreptitiously returned to Kashmir a few years ago. Maintaining a low profile, changing addresses and shifting residences, they avoided the gaze of the law enforcement agencies," read the official statement.

The police officials said that the two are now liable to immediately face trial in a designated TADA court in Delhi which has already completed the trial with respect to one of the accused, Dar. Mirwaiz was killed on May 21, 1990. When the funeral procession passed through the Hawal area of Srinagar, paramilitary forces opened fire fearing violent protests, in which over 50 people were killed. Incidentally, both Mirwaiz and Bangroo are buried in the 'martyrs graveyard' at Eidgah Srinagar. The Hurriyat Conference, formed in 1993 and headed by Mirwaiz Umer (who is under detention since August 4, 2019), commemorates May 21 as 'martyrs day.'