SRINAGAR, Oct 11, KDC: Jailed separatist leader Altaf Ahmad Shah passed away at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi early on Monday night, just days after he was diagnosed with late stage renal cancer that had spread to other parts of his body, his family said.
In a tweet, according to news agency Kashmir Dot Com, Shah’s daughter Ruwa Shah confirmed the death. “Abu (father) breathed his last at AIIMS, New Delhi. As a prisoner,” Ruwa Shah tweeted.
Along with six top Hurriyat leaders, Shah, 66, was arrested in a “terror-funding case” in 2017. He was the son-in-law of the deceased Syed Ali Geelani.
Diagnosed with renal cancer, Shah was shifted to Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital where he remained on a ventilator. When the family appealed to the court that the hospital lacks cancer treatment systems, he was ordered to be shifted to AIIMS on October 1. The court permitted his son and daughter to be with their father for hour daily.
Shah, 66, lived in Soura area of Srinagar and was the son-in-law and associate of Syed Ali Geelani and was one of his close associates. He is survived by wife, son and daughter. Shah is the third political prisoner to die during incarceration. (KDC)