Sirajul Haq, Liaqat Baloch, Ameerul Azim, other leaders strongly condemn custodial murder of Altaf Ahmad Shah in New Delhi

ISLAMABAD, Oct 11 (SABAH): Emir Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan Sirajul Haq, Naib Emir JI Liaqat Baloch and JI Secretary General Ameerul Azim have strongly condemned the custodial murder of senior All Parties Hurriyat Conference leader and son-in-law of late Quaid Tehreek-e-Azadi Jammu Kashmir Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Altaf Ahmad Shah in New Dehli.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami said that Altaf Ahmad Shah was a prominent Kashmiri figure whose whole life passed in freedom struggle. They said that the Indian government kept him behind the bars in Tihar Jail for over five years in a forged case where he was suffering from severe illness; however, Indian authorities hid his illness from the members of his family and forced him to death while depriving him of the medical aid. In this way Indian authorities killed an unarmed Kashmiri leader so that the Kashmiris could be deprived of its leadership.

While condemning the act of barbarism, Jamaat-e-Islami leaders stressed upon the international human rights organizations to take notice of killing of Kashmiri leader while he was in custody. They also stressed upon the government of Pakistan to take up this matter at international level.

Sirajul Haq while expressing sympathies with the heirs of the martyred said that the sacrifices of Altaf Ahmad Shah and other Kashmiri leaders will bring fruits and soon the dawn of freedom will rise in Kashmir.

Meanwhile Mushaal Hussein Mullick, wife of imprisoned senior Hurriyat leader Muhammad Yasin Malik severely criticized after hearing the news. She blamed the cruel behavior of the Indian government for the death of Altaf Ahmad Shah.

Altaf Wani also reacted strongly on the killing and held the government of India responsible for this. Sardar Muhammad Tabassum also criticized this act of cruelty committed by the government of India.

While expressing deep sorrow and regret, Kashmiri leaders including Washington based World Forum for Peace and Justice Chairman Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai, Emir JI Azad Jammu and Kashmir Dr. Khalid Mahmood Khan, Ghulam Muhammad Safi, Maulana Ghulam Nabi Nowshehri, Farida Behn Ji, said that the void created by the death of Altaf Ahmad Shah will never be filled. They severely criticized this act of cruelty committed by government of India. 

Altaf Ahmad Shah, who was suffering from kidney cancer, was shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital in New Delhi only hours before his death, last night. He was imprisoned in the Delhi’s notorious Tihar Jail since 2017.

Hurriyat leader, a resident of Surah area of Srinagar, was arrested on July 25, 2017 along with six other persons in an alleged case of funding for terrorism under investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Since then he was imprisoned in Delhi’s infamous Tihar Jail.

Tihar jail officials did not immediately comment on Shah’s death. Shah is the fourth separatist leader from India-controlled Kashmir to have died in police custody in the last three years. He was part of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, an anti-India political group, and one of the staunchest supporters of demands for Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan. He was a cancer patient who was denied treatment and transferred to the hospital when the cancer started to damage his vital organs.