A tenuous calm prevailed in Jammu’s curfew-hit Kishtwar district on Friday after the army was called out to prevent violence over the assassination of BJP state secretary Anil Parihar and his brother.

The government has formed a special investigation team headed by additional superintendent of police Parbeet Singh to probe the double murder, which officials said was likely carried out by militants.

Anil, 52, and elder brother Ajit Parihar, 55, were shot dead by two pistol-wielding men at 8.40pm on Thursday while returning to their home in Kishtwar town, 170km from Jammu city.

Anil owned a stationery shop in the market near the brothers’ home while Ajit was a State Forest Corporation employee. A massive hunt has been launched to catch the killers.

Protests by an agitating mob and fears of a communal flare-up had prompted the district administration to impose curfew last night. Curfew was also clamped in parts of adjoining Doda district.

Officials said the leaders of the two communities made attempts to ensure peace. The imam of Kishtwar’s Jamia Masjid, Farooq Kitchloo, condemned the killings and urged Muslims to join the victims’ last rites.

Kishtwar police chief Rajinder Gupta told The Telegraph the situation was under control on Friday.

Gupta said two police constables, Om Prakash and Sahil Kumar, had been deployed on the BJP leader’s security but were not accompanying him when the attack took place. Their absence made it easier for the attackers to kill and escape.

Kishtwar district magistrate Angrez Singh Rana said the army had staged a flag march in the town and that additional forces had been stationed in the district.

Police sources said certain leads had emerged indicating the attackers were militants, suggesting the insurgents had returned to the district and the larger Chenab Valley, which were declared free of militancy a few years ago.

“We busted several modules this year that were trying to revive militancy in the Chenab Valley,” an officer said.

“There were a few militant attacks in the region this year and two young men from Doda district recently joined the rebels. We suspect the militants have recruited people from Kishtwar too, and that they were behind these killings.”

The Muslim-majority Chenab valley is made up of the Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban districts. Two young men, one of them an MBA, joined the militants from Doda in September.

Kishtwar district, with 58 per cent Muslims and 41 per cent Hindus, has witnessed communal violence in the past. The BJP won the Kishtwar Assembly seat for the first time in the 2014 elections after allegedly polarising the population.

The Hindus rallied behind the BJP while the Muslim vote got divided among the National Conference, People’s Democratic Party and the Congress.

Sources said Anil was a key BJP figure in the district and was leading a campaign for the abrogation of Article 35A, which grants special rights and privileges to the state’s residents over its land, jobs and scholarships.