Criminals, rapists being released but political prisoners deprived bail: Mehbooba on Altaf Shah's death

PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said that things were far from normal in the country, adding that political prisoners were perishing in jails. Highlighting the death of separatist Altaf Shah, she further cited the example of Father Stan Swamy to establish her point.

Srinagar:Hitting out at the Centre, former J&K Chief Minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti Tuesday noted that political prisoners were languishing in prisons and those with criminal charges against them were being let out on bail. Invoking the death of Stan Swamy during incarceration, Mufti observed, while speaking to the media, that the death of separatist leader Altaf Shah established that the situation was not normal.

"If everything would have been normal, then such things wouldn't happen. This is not just a matter of Altaf Shah, whose family is waiting outside AIIMS for his dead body. You should remember 80-year-old Stan Swamy, who was not granted bail and died in jail. Several social activists and political prisoners are locked up in jails and are also not keeping well," she said.

"Criminals and rapists are not only released in this regime but they are also welcomed. At the same time, political prisoners and people imprisoned on fake charges are deprived of bail. Like Altaf Shah, they are not allowed to spend their last days at their homes. Thousands of our youth are in jails and houses of religious leaders are raided" the former Chief Minister added.

Altaf Ahmad Shah, the son-in-law of late Syed Ali Geelani, who was imprisoned in Delhi's Tihar jail in an alleged terror funding case, died of cancer in Delhi's AIIMS hospital on Tuesday. His body was handed over to his family after postmortem, Director General (Prisons), Tihar, Sandeep Goel told ETV Bharat.