Jailed Kashmiri separatist Altaf Ahmad Shah passes away at AIIMS, Delhi

Kashmiri separatist Altaf Ahmad Shah passed away at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the national capital on Monday night.

Altaf Ahmad Shah, the son-in-law of Syed Ali Geelani, was lodged in Tihar Jail for the past five years in a terror-funding case. He was admitted in the Urology Department of AIIMS Delhi on October 5 and breathed his last at 11.30 pm on Monday.

Hurriyat chief Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah, Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Peer Saifullah on August 14, 2017, were produced before Delhi's Patiala House Court in connection with the terror funding case, allegedly involving Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on August 8, that year questioned Geelani's sons Nayeem and Naseem in the said matter.

Nayeem was tipped as the natural successor to lead the Tehrek-e-Hurriyat, a separatist conglomerate comprising pro-Pakistan hardline groups, after his father.

The NIA registered the case on May 30, 2017, accusing separatists of being involved with terrorist groups. The case was registered over raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir. It also included causing disruption in the Valley by pelting security forces with stones, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.

The NIA had conducted searches in several places of the Union Territory (state at that time) besides Haryana and the national capital and seized electronic devices and valuables worth crores of rupees.