Jailed Kashmiri pro-freedom leader dies in police custody

NEW DELHI (AP) — Altaf Ahmad Shah, a prominent Kashmiri politician who challenged India’s rule of the disputed region for decades and who was jailed by Indian authorities for the past five years, died while that he was in police custody, his family announced on Tuesday. He was 66 years old.

Shah was arrested by Indian authorities in 2017 in a « terrorist financing case » and was held in Tihar prison in New Delhi, where he was diagnosed with kidney cancer in September. After repeated appeals from the family to senior government officials, including a letter to Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, the imprisoned leader was transferred to the Indian Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi for treatment, where he died on Monday evening.

Tihar prison officials did not immediately comment on Shah’s death.

Shah is the fourth separatist leader in Indian-controlled Kashmir to have died in police custody in the past three years. He was part of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, an anti-India political group, and one of the staunchest supporters of demands to merge Kashmir with Pakistan.

Last year, Shah’s father-in-law and the region’s staunchest anti-India leader, Syed Ali Geelani, 91, died at his residence in Srinagar after nearly 10 years under house arrest. Earlier in 2021, separatist leader Mohammed Ashraf Sehrai, 78, died of multiple ailments in prison.

India arrested thousands of Kashmiris under strict laws imposed when an armed rebellion broke out in pursuit of independence for the region or merger with Pakistan, which controls another part of the territory. Rights groups say India has used the law to stifle dissent and circumvent the justice system, undermining accountability, transparency and respect for human rights.

India views the armed rebellion as a proxy war of Pakistan and considers it state sponsored terrorism. Most Muslim Kashmiris see it as a legitimate struggle for freedom and support the rebels’ goal of uniting the divided territory either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

Shah’s daughter, Ruwa Shah, tweeted about her father’s condition on September 21, saying he needed a « real hospital » instead of the prison’s intensive care unit. In a letter to the Delhi High Court, she also asked for her father’s release on bail due to his poor health.

Shah was initially transferred to Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi, according to Ruwa, who said the health facility does not treat cancer patients. He was then transferred to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India’s premier health facility, after an intervention by the Delhi High Court.

“It has always been his biggest concern since his incarceration, that he will die as a prisoner,” Ruwa told Indian news site The Quint last week.

In August 2019, when India scrapped Kashmir’s semi-autonomy, Indian authorities cracked down hard on the group’s leaders, arresting dozens and banning them from leading public protests.

The Associated Press