Friday, March 29, 2024

Jailed separatist leader Altaf Shah passes away

Shahid Tantry/Caravan

Jailed separatist Kashmiri leader Altaf Ahmad Shah passed away at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi early on Tuesday morning, his daughter and journalist Ruwa Shah confirmed.

“Abu breathed his last at AIIMS, New Delhi. As a prisoner,” she tweeted with an image of an Islamic prayer for the deceased.

Ruwa Shah in recent weeks has written to the Indian Prime Minister and other concerned authorities about her father’s health condition.

“My incarcerated father has been diagnosed with acute renal cancer which has metastasis and has spread to his other body parts, including his bones. It is my whole family’s request to please allow us to see him and consider his bail application on health grounds which was earlier today adjourned till 10 sept in the NIA court as his condition is very critical and deteriorating, as I write. He is presently on oxygen support in the ICU of RML hospital – where there is no oncology department.,” Ruwa Shah tweeted last month.

“My father, Altaf Shah, is 66 and is a political prisoner since last 5 years at New Delhi’s Tihar Jail.”

The Delhi High Court had on 01 October ordered that Shah be shifted to AIIMS in Delhi, but he has moved to the hospital only some days ago. The court had also directed that his son or daughter be allowed to meet him for an hour every day.

Independent research and journalism organization, Polis Project, called it “Another custodial death as a result of blatant medical negligence: jail authorities denied proper medical care for his widespread cancer in spite of a court order.”

Shah, the son-in-law of tall Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Geelani, has been in NIA custody in connection with its probe into the funding of terror and subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley since July 24, 2017.

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