DOHA: Altaf Ahmad Shah, a prominent pro-freedom leader from Indian-administered Kashmir, has died in custody fighting renal cancer, his family said.
Shah, 66, was being held in the high-security Tihar prison in the Indian capital New Delhi for the past five years. He died early on Tuesday while undergoing treatment at a state-run medical college in the city.
His family had, in the past, made several appeals for release on bail or access to better medical care for Shah, who also suffered from hypertension and diabetes for years, putting him in a high-risk category during India’s coronavirus pandemic lockdown.
“At 10:30pm [Monday], he passed away in the hospital. They did not let us see him when he was talking. When he stopped talking, they allowed us,” one of Shah’s family members told Al Jazeera.
The family said Shah was moved to New Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital on September 24 after a prolonged illness in jail. A week later, he was diagnosed with advanced renal cancer.
His daughter, journalist Ruwa Shah, took to Twitter to highlight her father’s deteriorating health and to demand better treatment. She also wrote to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, appealing for bail on health grounds.
“My incarcerated father has been diagnosed of 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,” Ruwa Shah said in a tweet on September 30.
On October 5, Shah was moved to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences hospital in the capital where he died.Altaf Ahmad Shah with his daughter Ruwa Shah [Courtesy of Ruwa Shah]
Shah and six other prominent Kashmiri pro-freedom leaders were arrested in 2017 by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) for alleged money laundering.
Two years later, New Delhi unilaterally scrapped the special status of the disputed region and put more Kashmiri politicians and activists behind bars.-A;Jazeera
