After 9 months, family meets Shabir Shah in Tihar

Srinagar, May 03: Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party chief Shabir Shah was allowed to meet his family for 18 minutes at Tihar Jail, in Delhi on Thursday.
Ailing and incarcerated Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chairman, Shabir Ahmad Shah said that even after completing 31 years of imprisonment, I am as strong as I was in 1968.
Addressing a presser here, DFP leaders said that Shah’s wife accompanied by her elder daughter succeeded in meeting DFP chairman for 18 minutes only after waiting for at least five hours on the jail gate and going through intense frisking.
The leaders said that the Shah during the meeting with his wife and daughter said that “31 years of jail could not break or weaken my resolve for freedom of Kashmir. I am as strong as I was in 1968 when I was first imprisoned at the age of 12.”
The family as per the leaders also said that Shah is seriously unwell but the family said his morale is very high. “Shah’s daughter who after seeing the condition of her jailed father fell down and was hardly brought out of the jail premises,” they said.
“Shabir Shah has lost tremendous weight while in his 6 by 8 cell having visible dark circles around his eyes. He is not able to stand properly because of weakness and Back ache. He gets frequent fainting attacks. As per the medical records he has been diagnosed with severe Heart ailment Block in arteries,” the leaders said during the presser.
“Irony is that as Shabir Shah was already having multiple ailments and we were again and again pressing hard for his treatment but all went to deaf ears and Shabir Shah was not even allowed to take his regular medicines and now as his health started deteriorating further it still took jail authorities around 5 months to make the diagnoses,” they added.
“Shah has been diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus/ Hypertension/with Severe Heart ailment as diagnosed by undergoing various Tests like HUTT/ Holter/ Stress Thalium Scan at Safderjung Hospital. He has multiple Heart Blocks for which he will require Angiography followed by Angioplasty. But nothing has been done till date. All these tests and diagnosis took the jail authorities months together though all tests were supposed to be of emergency nature. Medical reports provided by Shah clearly say that expert doctors have advised immediate treatment of the jailed leader,” DFP said.
“We had time and again warned the authorities in New Delhi and the local government here that Shabir Shah needs immediate treatment. Shabir Shah was already suffering from many ailments when he was kidnapped from Srinagar to Delhi,” they said.
The leaders said that though Shah is a firm believer of political resistance however he is being punished by the political leadership of India. “Now when his health condition has further deteriorated and has endangered his life, we stress upon the human rights organizations to come to the rescue of the “Prisoner of Conscience” before it is too late. We further warn New Delhi and its local agents of dire consequences if anything happened to our beloved leader,” they added.