Jailed separatist leader Altaf Ahmad Shah passed away at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi early on Tuesday morning. Shah’s daughter Ruwa Shah confirmed the death through a tweet. “Abu (father) breathed his last at AIIMS, New Delhi. As a prisoner,” she tweeted.
Son-in-law of late Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Shah was arrested by the NIA in 2018, along with several other separatist leaders, in an alleged terror funding case and was lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail.
Over the last six months, his daughter has been making regular appeals to the authorities saying he is not keeping well and needs immediate medical attention.
According to his daughter, Shah was diagnosed with renal cancer that spread to other parts of his body, and was shifted to Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital that had no oncology department.
The Delhi High Court had on October 1 ordered that Shah be shifted to AIIMS in Delhi, but he was 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.Shah is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters. Shah’s son – the oldest among the siblings – Anees ul Islam was victim of the government crackdown on employees. His services were terminated by the government under section 311 (2) (C) for being a “threat to the security of the state” in October 2021.A resident of Soura in Srinagar, Shah was the son-in-law of late Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani and was one of his close associates. He was also associated with the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, founded by Geelani in 2004.