Kashmiri Hurriyat Leader Altaf Ahmad Shah Dies In Detention While Battling Cancer

SRINAGAR — Kashmiri Hurriyat 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.

Shah’s daughter Ruwa Shah confirmed the death. “Abu (father) breathed his last at AIIMS, New Delhi. As a prisoner,” Ruwa Shah tweeted.

Shah, 66 was son-in-law of late Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani. He was arrested by NIA in 2017 along with several other Hurriyat leaders in alleged ‘terror funding case’ and was lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.

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, a resident of Soura area of Srinagar was the son-in-law of late Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani and was one of his close associates. He is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters.

Shah’s son Anees ul Islam, the oldest among the siblings, had lost his government job in October 2021. — (Agencies)