While granting bail to Shabir Ahmed Shah, the leader of the Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP), in an alleged terror funding case Thursday, the Supreme Court took note of his prolonged incarceration.
While the Court was talking of the past eight years Shah has been imprisoned, the founder of the JKDFP, one of the main political organisations of Kashmir seeking the right of self-determination for the Valley, has spent nearly half his 72 years of life in jails.
From allegations of terrorism, terror funding, rioting with a deadly weapon, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, and being part of unlawful assembly at a polling station, Shah is named as an accused in at least 24 FIRs. He has not been convicted in any till date.
Shah’s first arrest was at the age of 14, for participating in a pro-separatist protest. In 1974, he joined the Jammu and Kashmir People’s League, which was the first to talk of separatism in the erstwhile state.
In 1989, Shah was arrested again for allegedly attempting to cross over to Pakistan. He spent six years in jail before securing bail, and immediately joined the All Parties Hurriyat Conference. However, he soon developed differences with the Hurriyat and in 1996, was expelled from the amalgam over his assertions on dialogue over Kashmir. In 1998, he formed the JKDFP.
In 2003, Shah joined the Hurriyat’s moderate faction, led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, but switched sides in 2014 to join the rival group led by hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani. In 2017, the NIA arrested him from his Srinagar residence in an alleged terror funding case and later handed him over to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money laundering case. He has been in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since.
In October 2023, the Centre banned the JKDFP, invoking the stringent UAPA against it. The NIA has dubbed Shah “the mouthpiece for Pakistan’s ISI”.
The current cases
The main among them are two lodged under the UAPA by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The agency accuses him of being part of a conspiracy along with others to fuel secessionist activities in J&K “through various terrorist activities, such as organization of violent protests, instigating the general public to commit violence, pelting of stones at security forces, burning of schools, damaging public property etc, and waging war against the Union of India”.
The NIA alleges that as “a key conspirator”, Shah attended meetings and secured funds through hawala route or through the Line of Control trade to propagate violence in J&K, and that he gave “inflammatory” speeches, including at funerals of slain militants.
The NIA has presented several videos of Shah’s speeches along with statements of witnesses to build its case. It claims funds were raised “by way of directing the Kashmiri traders to engage in under-invoicing and under-weighing of goods… imported through the LoC barter trade… and to commit irregularities in the maintenance of records, etc”.
The cases involve 400 witnesses, of whom less than 40 have been examined till date.
The Enforcement Directorate has claimed that Shah and his associate Aslam Wani, who allegedly had links with the Jaish-e-Mohammad, collected hawala funds in Delhi and passed them to the JKDFP leader for “anti-national” activities.
It was in relation to these allegations that the NIA arrested Shah from his Srinagar residence and handed him over to the ED in 2017. In June 2025, Shah’s bail plea was rejected by the Delhi High Court.
Shah’s defence
Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves, who represented Shah, has argued that the videos used by the NIA to implicate the JKDFP leader were 25 years’ old and used in all the 24 FIRs against him, to “keep him incarcerated for a prolonged period”. He also said that the videos only showed Shah participating in peaceful gatherings and speaking about the grief of mothers who had lost their young children.
The defence presented Shah as a senior political leader who had met other leaders in pursuit of a peaceful resolution to the Kashmir issue. On terror funding allegations, Gonsalves referred to two transactions which the NIA had highlighted – in 2015 and 1993 – and said that at both times, Shah was in jail (2011 to 2017, and 1989 to 1994).
The transactions talked about by the NIA involve a Rs 10 lakh payment in 2015, which it has linked to Shah, and alleged borrowing of Rs 25 lakh by Shah in 1993.
The reactions
In June 2025, Shah’s daughter Sehar Shabir made an appeal to the authorities to release him citing his ill health. “This is not political. This is not anti-national. This is not against any country, institution, or government. This is only about my father’s life. His health. His right to be treated with dignity,” she posted on X, adding that her father had spent 38 years in prison in total and had been advised multiple surgeries.
On Thursday, after Shah got bail, Sehar posted: “… today justice has taken its first step. We always had faith in the judiciary, and today that faith stands affirmed.”
Welcoming the bail order, Mirwaiz said: “We fervently hope that the courts in the same spirit give relief to all political prisoners and youth languishing in jails inside and outside Jammu and Kashmir.”