Ailing Shabbir Shah arrested again, Mirwaiz slams revolving-door policy’
Srinagar: In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, senior Hurriyat leader Shabbir Ahmed Shah has been arrested by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a three-decade-old case, despite his advanced age and deteriorating health.
According to Kashmir Media Service, the 72-year-old leader, who has spent nearly four decades in different jails over the years, was taken into custody in connection with a 1996 case and later remanded to 10-day NIA custody by a special court in Jammu.
Shah had recently been granted bail by the Supreme Court in a fake case on March 12 and by a Delhi court on March 28 after remaining incarcerated for almost a decade.
Officials said he was arrested by the NIA’s Srinagar branch and initially produced before the Patiala House Court, which granted transit remand. He was subsequently shifted to Jammu, where the court allowed the agency to interrogate him in custody.
The case relates to an incident registered in July 1996 at Shergarhi Police Station Srinagar.
Meanwhile, senior APHC leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq strongly condemned the arrest, saying that despite his old age and critical health condition, Shah is being repeatedly targeted.
In a post on X, he said: “Even after spending a lifetime of 39 years in jail for his political beliefs, Shabir Shah, now old and critically ill, is once again being persecuted despite the bail granted to him by the Supreme Court. This is very unfortunate and worrying.”
“This revolving-door policy completely undermines the justice system, where one case replaces another to ensure continued incarceration.” He urged the authorities to end what he described as the continued suffering of Shah and his family and to release him.
