SRINAGAR: Jailed secessionist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah’s daughter, Sama Shabir, and deceased Pakistan supporter Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s granddaughter, Ruwa Shah, have publicly renounced secessionist ideologies and pledged allegiance to the sovereignty of the Union of India. In identical public notices published in local newspapers, they distanced themselves from separatist politics. Ruwa Shah, the daughter of Geelani’s son-in-law, Altaf Ahmad Shah, who was also known as Altaf Fantoosh, issued a public notice distancing herself from the Hurriyat Conference faction founded by her late grandfather. She declared that she had no inclination or sympathy towards the Hurriyat Conference ideology. “I am a loyal citizen of India, not affiliated with any organisation or association that has an agenda against the Union of India, and I owe allegiance to the constitution of my country,” Shah, a former journalist said in the notice published in a local daily earlier this week. Her father, who was also in jail for alleged terror funding, died last year after a prolonged illness. In a separate public notice published in a local newspaper on Thursday, 23-year-old Sama Shabir, a former CBSE topper in Kashmir, emphasised her status as a loyal Indian citizen and unequivocally distanced herself from the banned secessionist organisation founded by her father, who is currently in Tihar Jail on money laundering and terror funding charges. “I am a loyal citizen of India and I am not affiliated with any person or organisation which is against the sovereignty of the Union of India,” Sama Shabir, the elder daughter of Shah, said in the notice. “I am not associated with the DFP or its ideology in any way,” she said, cautioning that legal action would be pursued against anyone linking her to the secessionist group without authorisation. Shabir Ahmad Shah, 70, was arrested in 2017 by the Enforcement Directorate over alleged money laundering activities linked to terror financing. He was later chargesheeted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) also for alleged terror financing. Sama was summoned by the ED in 2019 in connection with the case, but she did not appear at that time as she was in the United Kingdom studying law.
