Kashmiri Separatist Politician Altaf Shah Dies of Cancer at Delhi Hospital

Altaf Shah had been serving a sentence in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail for the past five years for colluding with Pakistan to finance militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. His family, however, referred to him as a “political prisoner.” Altaf was son-in-law of separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani and a member of the political group Tehreek-e-Hurriyat.
Sputnik
A Kashmiri separatist politician, Altaf Shah, has died in judicial custody at a Delhi hospital days after he was diagnosed with late-stage renal cancer.
His family sought release on humanitarian grounds for the last few weeks to provide him urgent medical attention, his daughter Ruwa Shah confirmed to Sputnik.
Last week, she appealed to the government on Twitter to allow treatment for her father, and a few days later, he was shifted to one of Delhi’s leading hospitals, Ram Manohar Lohia (RML), to get treatment.

However, Ruwa maintained that the hospital lacked adequate medical equipment to treat the specific type of cancer that her father was suffering from.

As a result, Altaf was eventually taken to Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where he passed away late Monday night.
On Tuesday afternoon, Ruwa complained that the body of her father had not been handed over to her yet, and further delay would “worsen the situation” as she is supposed to take the last flight to Kashmir the same evening for the burial.
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