By PTI

JAMMU: A dozen persons, including the brother of a senior Congress leader, were booked in two separate FIRs for their alleged links with Hizbul Mujahideen terror outfit in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Tuesday.

While six persons, who were named in one of the FIRs were arrested, six others, including Mohammad Shafi, the brother of state Congress vice president and former minister G M Saroori, are at large and efforts are on to nab them, they said.

"I came to know about it (naming of Shafi in the FIR) just now and was shocked. Our people can never do such a thing. Tomorrow, I will try to find out what is the matter," Saroori told PTI.

The officials said Shafi and five others -- Masood Ahmad Mattoo, Mohammad Muzaffar Shah, Ghulam Mohammad, Tawseef Ahmad Gandna and Syed Ahmad -- were named in FIR (No:229/2019) and are accused of providing shelter and transport to active terrorists of Hizbul Mujahideen to carry out their activities.

They were also charged of conspiring with the terrorists of the outfit to harm the integrity of the nation, besides providing information of security installations to the terrorists, including Mohammad Amin alias "Jehangir Saroori", to carry out attacks, the officials said, adding they were booked under various sections of the unlawful activities(prevention) act.

In the second FIR (230/2019), six persons -- Nissar Ahmad Rather, Kousar Hussain, Liyaqat Ali, Mohammad Muzaffar Sheikh, Asif Hussain and Imtiyaz Ahmad Bhat who were facing similar charges -- were arrested, the officials said.

After declaring terrorism free over a decade ago, Kishtwar district was rocked by killing of four persons, including a senior BJP leader and an RSS functionary, and two weapons snatching incidents since November last year.

Three hardcore terrorists, including Osama who was the brain behind the revival of militancy in the district, were killed in an encounter with security forces at Batote along Jammu-Kishtwar highway on Saturday.

Complimenting the security forces for the "major success", Director General of Police Dilbag Singh had said a massive crackdown was launched a few days ago in Kishtwar after which 41 persons with suspicious activities were picked up.

"More than a dozen out of them turned out to be involved in helping terrorist activities by way of harbouring and being associates. It was because of this pressure maintained by the police and Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) that the terrorists tried to escape towards Kashmir and as a result of this pressure they were neutralized," Singh said, while inspecting the scene of the gunbattle in Ramban district on Sunday.

Earlier on September 23, Inspector General of Police, Jammu, Mukesh Singh had said all the four cases of killings and weapon snatching in Kishtwar district were solved with the arrest of three Hizbul Mujahideen militants.

While naming Osama and five other terrorists, the IGP had said the security forces are after them and will be brought to book soon.

Senior BJP leader Anil Parihar and his brother Ajit Parihar were killed in Kishtwar town on November 1, 2018, while RSS functionary Chanderkant Sharma and his PSO were assassinated on April 9.

Terrorists snatched the service rifle of the deputy commissioner's PSO Daleep Kumar on March 8 and the rifle of PSO of People's Democratic Party (PDP) district president Sheikh Nasir Hussain on September 13.