Jailed separatist leader Altaf Ahmad Shah dies of cancer at AIIMS, Delhi

Altaf Shah, jailed Kashmiri separatist leader and son-in-law of late Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, has passed away at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi. He was shifted to AIIMS from Tihar jail for treatment a few days ago.

Shah, 66, died of cancer in the early hours of Tuesday.

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.

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.

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 which had no oncology department.

The Delhi High Court had on October 1 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.

Ruwa had also made an appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking immediate medical attention for her father and bail on humanitarian grounds.

Shah is survived by his wife, a son, and two daughters. Shah's son Anees ul Islam, the oldest among the siblings, lost his government job in October 2021 under section 311 (2) (C) for being a "threat to the security of the state".

"Docs here (RML) refuse to speak to us. The police are not letting us see him. He needs treatment ASAP," Ruwa tweeted a week ago. "His lungs are not functioning. Oxygen has dropped. They are not letting us see him before they put him on ventilator."

In September, Ruwa had also written an open letter to the Prime Minister seeking medical care for her father.