The Awami Action Committee (AAC), led by separatist Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has asked the government to bring to justice the killers of his father Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq, defying tradition to speak against militant crimes.

Jammu and Kashmir police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested the militant who killed Mohammad Farooq, 33 years after his death. Special director-general of police (CID) R.R. Swain told reporters that two Hizb militants, who were in hiding for 33 years, had been arrested and one of them had pulled the trigger to kill Mohammad Farooq, the then chief cleric of the Valley and a separatist.

A spokesman for the AAC said the party's executive committee, headed by general secretary Ghulam Nabi Zaki, has asked state authorities to bring the accused to justice as soon as possible.

"As the saying goes 'blood leaves its trail'. The police have said that the accused have now been arrested in the ongoing investigation of more than three decades by state authorities. If involved, they should be brought to justice as soon as possible,” the group said in a statement.

"It’s (Mohammad Farooq's death) a very painful and tragic part of our lives as well as in the history of Kashmir.”

The statement said the police had come up with the claim days ahead of the "33rd martyrdom anniversary of Shaheed-i-Millat (Farooq) and the Hawal massacre".

Dozens of mourners who had joined Mohammad Farooq's funeral procession in Hawal on May 21, 1990, had fallen to bullets fired by the security forces.