Jammu and Kashmir police on Wednesday said they had started the process of attaching the house of a militant suspected to have killed a Kashmiri Pandit in Shopian on Tuesday, while his father and three brothers have been arrested for allegedly sheltering him.

Sunil Kumar Bhat, father to four minor daughters, was killed and his brother Pitambar Nath Bhat was injured in a militant attack in a Shopian village on Tuesday.

The killing triggered outrage as scores of Muslim neighbours joined Sunil’s funeral and raised slogans against his death.The police said a local militant, Adil Wani, killed Sunil and took shelter at his own home in Kutpora, a few kilometres away.

“The security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation but Wani, a categorised terrorist of the banned Al-Badr outfit, fled under the cover of darkness after hurling grenades at the approaching police party,” the police said.

The police said the hideout was busted and they recovered arms and ammunition from it. A police officer in Srinagar claimed the arms were recovered from Adil’s house, which is being attached. He said Adil’s three brothers and father have been arrested for sheltering him.The police claim could not be independently confirmed. Residents said the security forces vandalised the house and caused extensive damage during the raid.Around a dozen houses have been attached in Kashmir this year as punitive action to prevent youths from taking up arms.

Director-general of police Dilbag Singh said the two persons involved in Tuesday’s attack had been identified and follow-up action was underway.

“There will be strict punishment,” he said.Residents said the Kashmiri Pandit killed on Tuesday was survived by four minor daughters aged between 15 and seven.

The targeted killings of members of the minority Hindu community and migrant labourers, which returned to the Valley after 2019, have emerged as the biggest challenge for the security forces as they threaten to stall the process of return of the Pandits.

More than two-dozen people, including two Pandits, some migrant labourers and non-Kashmiri employees working in the Valley, have lost their lives in such attacks this year alone.In May, militants had killed Rahul Bhat, a government employee who had got a job here under Prime Minister’s return-and-rehabilitation policy. Thousands of Pandit employees have since refused to join duty as they demand relocation to Jammu.Unlike Rahul, Sunil and his family are among over 800 Pandit families who never migrated from the Valley. The family had stayed back even after militants shot and injured their neighbour Bal Krishan Bhat in April.