Srinagar: After days of repeated appeals to all manner of authorities by his daughter Ruwa Shah, Kashmir separatist leader Altaf Ahmad Shah has been shifted to AIIMS in Delhi where he can receive treatment for late stage renal cancer, days after a Delhi high court order.For days before this order, Shah’s daughter Ruwa – a prominent journalist – had repeatedly called on the Union and Delhi government to provide her father with emergency medical attention due to his deteriorating health.Shah, 66 years old, has been imprisoned in Tihar since 2017 over the National Investigation Agency’s terror funding charges. He was one of seven people detained in connection with the case. On September 21, Ruwa tweeted on her father’s deteriorating health. In a series of tweets, the journalist wrote that her father was critically ill, suffering from pneumonia, chronic kidney disease and “uncontrollable diabetes”.Shah was eventually moved to Delhi’s Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.On Friday, September 30, Ruwa tweeted that she has learned that her father has been diagnosed with renal cancer that had metastasised “and spread to other parts of his body, including his bones” and needed immediate medical attention. 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 @HMOIndia @PMOIndia— Ruwa Shah (@ShahRuwa) September 30, 2022 Ruwa, in her tweets, had tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for assistance. Reports have essayed her claims on how Shah was first hospitalised in the jail and then taken to RML only after his condition became serious. Ruwa has also said that his CT scan was delayed for a month. Speaking to The Wire on October 3, Ruwa said that she had received no response from any one in power. She added that while she was requesting to meet her ailing father, that is exactly what the authorities denied her.“My father was on the ventilator and was unable to speak. He wanted to write something to us but we were not allowed to see him,” she said.Ruwa said that she and her brother spent days outside RML for a chance to meet her father. In a letter to the Union home minister that she tweeted, Ruwa also asked for Shah’s release conditions be revised in light of his health struggles and that he be placed under home arrest while the court considers his bail.Urgent appeal to the @HMOIndia regarding my father who is on death bed. @PMOIndia @NIA_India https://t.co/2e5YMLplvW pic.twitter.com/AGO7SlyR8w— Ruwa Shah (@ShahRuwa) October 1, 2022“The NIA court on October 1 postponed the consideration of my father’s bail request till October 10,” she said.Ruwa alleged that jail authorities’ had told the NIA court that Shah only had “diabetes and hypertension”, which she believed was misleading as it did not highlight her father’s pneumonia, low haemoglobin and kidney malfunction.On October 3, the Delhi high court ordered Shah to be shifted to AIIMS for appropriate treatment. Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain, without going into the merits of the case under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, said that right to have adequate and suitable treatment was the part of the fundamental rights under the constitution.On October 4, Ruwa wrote on Twitter that despite the court’s order “over 27 hours ago,” Shah had not been moved from Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where he could not be treated for cancer. She tells The Wire that the shift eventually happened on the night of October 5. AppealsShah was a key member of the separatist group Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH), founded in 2004, and worked closely with the late Geelani. Geelani, imprisoned in his Srinagar home for more than 10 years, passed away last year at the age of 91, from a number of illnesses. Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai, another Hurriyat leader who replaced Geelani as Hurriyat chairman, too passed away in custody, with his family accusing authorities of failing to provide him with adequate medical care.Also read: Even When He Was Severely Ill, New Delhi Didn’t Stop Viewing Syed Ali Shah Geelani As A ThreatThe All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) has made fervent appeals to the government of India to grant Shah immediate bail on humanitarian grounds, and let his family take care of him. Their statement said that political prisoners including Hurriyat leaders and activists lodged in various jails across India since 2017 and before have developed serious health problems due to long-term incarceration. Often, pre-existing health issues have worsened due to neglect and lack of medical treatment in jails. The APHC called the process “inhuman.”“It is against the fundamental human and democratic principles to incarcerate by use of power, those who have a divergent political outlook and an ideology at variance from the one espoused by the rulers,” the statement reads. It further said that it hopes that rights organisations across India and outside will urge the government of India to release political prisoners and help them to at least get access to health care, which is the fundamental right of all, including prisoners. The former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and People’s Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti has tweeted on the continued incarceration of Shah.Continued incarceration of Altaf Shah is inhumane as he is critically ill. Request @HMOIndia to release him on humanitarian grounds so that he can be with his family in such distressing times. https://t.co/X2ohJqhSsV— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) October 1, 2022 Human rights activist Angad Singh Khalsa told The Wire that prisoners have rights according to the constitution which cannot be denied. “A jailed prisoner is the responsibility of the state. And when it comes Shah’s health, everything is in the public domain. Despite knowing of his health issues, the fact that authorities have not provided him with proper proper medical facilities is unfortunate and disheartening,” Khalsa told The Wire.Irshad Hussain is an independent journalist based in Srinagar. He tweets @Irshad55hussain.
