A judge in Kashmir’s Budgam district has issued a proclamation notice against PoK-based Hizb-ul-Mujahideen chief Mohammed Yousuf Shah alias Syed Salahuddin in a 23-year-old murder case registered at Budgam police station.

The notice asks him to appear before the court within a month. Pictures on social media showed notices pasted at his residence in Soibugh village in Budgam, where his family lives.

Officials said an FIR was registered against him in 2002 under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 109 (instigating someone to commit a crime) of the Ranbir Penal Code and Section 7/25 of the Arms Act. Shah has been living in PoK since 1990.

The notice says a police investigative officer reportedly made every effort to trace and arrest him but could not locate his whereabouts in the Valley. “Reportedly the said accused is putting up in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir,” it reads.

The order issued by the principal sessions judge stated that the accused’s continued absence has delayed justice for the victim’s family.

Hizb was once the largest indigenous militant group.