Diabetic Shabir Shah not getting enough to eat in custody: Wife

Shabir Shah, a known diabetic and hypertensive patient, is not getting proper diet in custody of the Enforcement Directorate, the Kashmiri separatist leader's wife said on Tuesday.

Bilquis Shah, a doctor by profession, feared for the life of her husband, who has been arrested on charges of receiving money from Pakistan to fund subversive activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

She said he needed to follow the diet as advised by his doctors but was not getting enough to eat in custody.

"When I went to meet him in the Enforcement Directorate office, he said he has had only one cup of tea for the past five hours. He needs to eat every two-three hours," Bilquis told IANS.

She said Shah was denied basic facilities in the custody that could deteriorate his health.

Shah was arrested from Srinagar a week ago on money laundering charges in a case dating back to 2005. He was remanded to seven-day custody by a Delhi court a day later.

Bilquis said when her husband -- "suffering from Type-2 diabetes, hypertension and failing livers" -- was in a jail in 2010, doctors had advised prison authorities to follow the diet chart like two eggs per day without yolk, fruits and vegetables in proper intervals.

She feared that Shah has hypoglycemic tendency, which means his blood glucose levels may fall suddenly.

She also complained that her husband was kept in a cell in Kamla Market Police Station where there was no fan or even a mattress.

"There are also lots of mosquitoes due to which he is not able to sleep. He showed mosquito bites on his body. I fear he could contract dengue or malaria as his immune system is already weak."

She said the ED, which is interrogating the separatist, was not providing mosquito net to her husband though he had been given mosquito repellent cream.

An ED official denied her allegations and said Shah was being taken care of.

Shah is the founding chairman of Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), which is a part of separatist amalgam Hurriyat Conference led by hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

--IANS

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