On his ‘death bed’ — Separatist Altaf Ahmad Shah needs urgent medical care, says his daughter  

The son-in-law of separatist leader late Syed Ali Shah Geelani has been in Tihar jail since 2017 in an alleged terror funding case. He was diagnosed with cancer Friday

By
Chitvan Vinayak
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Kashmiri separatist leader Altaf Ahmad Shah with his daughter Ruwa Shah |  Photo: Ruwa Shah/Facebook
Kashmiri separatist leader Altaf Ahmad Shah with his daughter Ruwa Shah |  Photo: Ruwa Shah/Facebook

New Delhi:  Daughter of separatist Kashmiri leader Altaf Ahmad Shah Saturday highlighted her father’s declining health condition and asked the central government to give him immediate medical attention.

Ruwa Shah, whose father Altaf Ahmad Shah has been in Tihar jail since 2017 on charges of terror funding, said in a series of tweets Friday that her father had been diagnosed with renal cancer that had metastasized “and spread to other parts of his body, including his bones” and required immediate medical attention. 

Shah, the son-in-law of the late separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was among seven people that the National Investigation Agency arrested on terror funding charges in 2017.  

“My incarcerated father has been diagnosed of [sic]] 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,” she said in a tweet in which she tagged both the PMO and the Ministry of Home Affairs.  

In a letter to the Union Home Minister — which she tweeted — Ruwa also asks that Shah’s bail conditions be reconsidered in light of the circumstances and that — until the court hears his bail application — he be put under house arrest. 

 

“Till the bail is granted, with due process, we request you to put him in [sic] house arrest so that we can treat him at a private hospital,” the letter reads.

Talking to ThePrint, Ruwa said that a doctor had told informed her Friday that her father’s cancer was in its last stage. 

“My father is currently admitted to the RML (Ram Manohar Lohia) Hospital in Delhi but the health facility lacks cancer treatment,” said Shah, expressing her helplessness at not seeing her father. 

A senior NIA official who did not want to be named told ThePrint that because the case was still sub-judice, the central agency could act only at the direction of the court.   

Also Read: Kashmir separatist Yasin Malik convicted in 2017 terror-funding case days after pleading guilty

‘Declining health but no medical care’

 Ruwa told ThePrint that her father’s health had been declining for two weeks now but the hospital had yet to start treating her father for cancer because of the absence of the necessary facilities. 

“I also visited the NIA court today (Saturday), where the judge assured me that he would help if my father’s latest health reports are presented [before the court],” said Shah, as she sobbed over the phone. The judge has asked the investigation agency for her father’s medical reports by 6 October, she said.   

Altaf Ahmad Shah's handwritten notes about his health | By special arrangement
Altaf Ahmad Shah’s handwritten notes about his health | By special arrangement

“But since my father needs immediate medical attention, he should be granted bail soon,” Shah said. 

After her father had complained of severe pain in his left abdomen two weeks ago, he was taken to the jail hospital.

“The doctor [there] had advised jail authorities to get a CT scan of his kidney done but jail authorities were unmoved,” Shah told ThePrint. “Had the scan been done, my father would have received proper treatment [by] now. Instead, jail authorities kept him in the jail hospital without getting any scan done.”

Shah said her father had complained of his declining health to her brother Anees-ul-Islam when he visited Tihar on 20 September. “But my father was shifted to RML 2-3 days after my brother’s visit,”  Shah, who had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22 September highlighting her father’s failing health, said.

 

In May 2020 — as the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic swept the country — Shah had penned a letter in Caravan magazine about her father’s deteriorating health and the inadequate medical attention he was receiving in prison. In that letter, she listed her father’s health conditions, ranging from diabetes and hypertension, and said he required quality medical care.

(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)

Also Read: ‘Ready to face whatever’s next’: What Yasin Malik said about guilty plea in terror-funding case