Srinagar, June 24 (UNI) Former Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday urged the Union Home Minister to take a humanitarian view of jailed separatist leader Shabir Shah’s condition, emphasizing the need to ensure he receives proper medical care as he battles a life-threatening illness.
Mehbooba’s appeal came after Shah's daughter, Sehar Shabir, posted an emotional appeal for compassion, justice, and basic humanity for her father.
“Request @HMOIndia to urgently consider the heartfelt appeal of Seher Shabir whose father Shabir Shah is battling a life-threatening illness. In this critical moment we urge GOI to take a humanitarian view by ensuring he receives proper medical care. This may be the family’s last chance to ease his suffering. Please let compassion guide the response,” Mehbooba said in a post on X.
Shabir Shah, the founder of the Democratic Freedom Party, has been in jail since 2017. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in July 2017. In 2019, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took his custody in an alleged terror funding case. He is presently lodged in Tihar Jail.
In the last few days several political parties in Kashmir have been urging the central government to allow Shah’s family to be by his side as he reportedly battles cancer in jail.
Shah’s daughter Sehar posted an appeal on X saying that it is not political, but about her father’s life. Sehar, had last year issued an advertisement in local newspapers pledging their loyalty to “the sovereignty of the Union of India”.
“..Since December 2024, when he (Shah) complained of passing blood in urine, our concern has only grown. My mother, who is a doctor, immediately sensed the seriousness, but everything since then has only been delayed and denied. This is not a political message and this is not anti-national in any way. This is a daughter's humble, heartfelt and urgent appeal for compassion, for justice and for basic human dignity,” Sehar said.
She said her father has now spent 38 years in imprisonment without a single conviction and in July 2025, he will complete 39 years and enter his 40th year of imprisonment.
“No trial, no conviction, no justice and now no proper medical care. He is in his 70s and recently through our lawyer, we came to know that he has been advised three urgent surgeries. One of them has been pending over three years. There is also growing concern about possible prostate cancer and serious kidney complications,” she said.
Sehar said despite repeated efforts, they have not been given access to any of his medical records in the last three years.
“And for almost two years, we have had no contact with him, not even the basic prison calls which every prisoner has a right to. When we visit him in Tihar jail, we are allowed only 15 minutes behind a soundproof wall through a blurred glass window and iron grills. When we speak through a damaged microphone, we cannot hear him properly, we cannot see him properly and we cannot touch him. We just leave broken,” she said.
Sehar questions as to why is the family being excluded from every step of health issue.
“We are not asking for a privilege, we are asking for basic humanitarian treatment. If the government does not want to release him, then at least place him under house arrest in Delhi, where he can be treated with proper medical care, where we, his family can take full responsibility for his medical needs and most importantly, where he is not alone through it all,” she said.
“See, this is not anything about politics, this is nothing anti-national. This is about a life-threatening medical emergency. A man's life is at stake. Yes, he is my father and no one can take that away. As a daughter, I will always speak for his health, his dignity, his right to live,” she said.
UNI MJR GNK