Senior separatist leader and late Syed Ali Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah passed away on Tuesday in Delhi’s AIIMS.

According to the family sources, he had been ailing with renal cancer during his incarceration in Tihar Jail from where he was first shifted to the Ram Manohar Lohia hospital and later to AIIMS for treatment.

Shah’s daughter Ruwa Shah confirmed the death through a tweet. “Abu (father) breathed his last at AIIMS, New Delhi. As a prisoner.”

Over the last six months, his daughter has been making regular appeals to the authorities saying he is not keeping well and needs immediate medical attention.

Shah was arrested by the NIA in 2018, along with several other separatist leaders, in an alleged terror funding case and was lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail since then.

Ruwa Shah tweeted in afternoon “we have been waiting calmly at AIIMS mortuary. Nobody from police or Magistrate (Sana Khan – who was asked to be here for the body to be released) is here yet. The delay will worsen the situation. Have to be at airport 3 hrs prior to last flight at 18.30”. She wrote on twitter informing PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah about the delay.

Condition of Altaf Shah had been deteriorating in the hospital. On September 30, Ruwa Shah had said that her father was suffering from renal cancer, which had spread to other body parts. Ruwa Shah had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to consider her father’s bail application, saying that his condition was critical and deteriorating.

The separatist leader was on oxygen support in the intensive care unit of the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, which according to Ruwa Shah, did not have an oncology department. He was later shifted to the AIIMS.

“The PET scan that is needed to be done is not available at RML where he is currently under custody treatment,” she had alleged. “Doctors here refuse to speak to us. The police are not letting us see him.”

Shah is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters. His eldest son, Anees-ul-Islam was last year dismissed from government job for alleged terror connections.