Friday, March 29, 2024

Jailed Kashmiri separatist leader needs urgent medical care, daughter to PM

Photo: Shahid Tantry/Caravan

Kashmiri journalist Ruwa Shah on Thursday wrote a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking intervention into the medical negligence faced by her father, Kashmiri separatist leader Altaf Ahmad Shah, in Delhi’s Tihar jail.

Shah tweeted that Altaf Ahmad Shah has been “seriously ill since a week now and the family has no whereabouts since last two days”.

“My father Mr. Altaf Ahmad Shah who is currently incarcerated at Tihar Jail in New Delhi was unwell for over two weeks during which he repeatedly requested the jail authorities to take him to a hospital. When he was finally taken to Deendayal hospital Janakpuri, the doctors referred him to Ram Manohar Lohia hospital for further treatment owing to his seemingly critical condition. However, he was brought back to Tihar Jail instead,” Shah wrote in a letter to PM.

Altaf Ahmad Shah is the son-in-law of the late Syed Ahmed Shah Geelani, who was the tallest separatist figure in the valley leader. Ahmad Shah was amongst seven separatist leaders arrested in 2017 by the National Investigative Agency in a case of alleged terror funding being received from Pakistan.

“When we inquired about his health at the NIA special court and sought his medical reports, we were stunned to know that the jail authorities had submitted prevaricated reports merely mentioning that he had diabetes and hypertension. These reports had no mention of his pneumonia, extremely low haemoglobin and kidney malfunction, thus clearly underplaying his critical condition.”

“Over the last two days, we have had no whereabouts of him. A sudden sense of panic and anxiety has taken over me and my family because of being absolutely clueless about my father. I request you earnestly to intervene, allow us to know of his condition immediately, and make the requisite medical help reach him before it is too late,” reads the letter.

spot_img

Don't Miss

Related Articles