Chairman of Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party Shabir Ahmad Shah recently completed twenty five years of his life in jails. The court earlier quashed third PSA against him on August 4, 2009. But he was again booked on September 5 under the same law. Perceiving detained Hurriyat Conference (M) leader and Democratic Freedom Party chairman Shabir Shah as the biggest threat to the security of the State, the State government has opined that his release can “adversely affect the semblance of normalcy in Valley.”  
Born in 1954 in Islamabad, Shah has been jailed for numerous times for his political thoughts. While a student of secondary school he was first arrested in 1969 because of his political activism. Since then, this advocate of tripartite talks, has been in and out of prisons, with his detained tenures amounting to 25 years.
Although he never picked up gun but Shah was one of the first leaders to be arrested after separatist violence started in Kashmir. And right now he seems to be the last separatist to be released.
Shah, whom the “Amnesty International declared prisoner of conscience” in 1992 is a diabetic patient, and also suffers from kidney ailments.  Shah is married and has two daughters age 7 and 5.
His followers have also started a petition to seek his release.
Shah’s latest round of trouble with administration started after he shunned his bystander approach and came close to the two Hurriyat’s.
Shah was detained under PSA on August 20, 2008 after taking part in “Muzaffarabad Chalo” March during the land agitation last year. After his detention grounds were quashed by the High Court, the government again slapped PSA against him on December 8, 2008, which was later revoked by the Court. He was released on May 22, 2009 but was re-arrested on June 8 with a fresh PSA slapped against him. The Court quashed his third PSA on August 4 but he was not released and instead booked again under PSA.

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