ISLAMABAD     -    The Indian Charge d’Affaires in Islamabad was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday and conveyed Pakistan’s strong protest over the inhuman custodial death of Hurriyat leader Altaf Ahmed Shah, who remained imprisoned in the infamous Tihar Jail for the last five years. It was deplored that despite Pakistan’s expression of serious concerns over Altaf Ahmed Shah’s sharply deteriorating health, as well as his daughter’s letter addressed to the Indian Prime Minister apprising him of Shah’s precarious health condition, the Indian government remained completely indifferent. The government of India not only failed to provide satisfactory medical care to Altaf Ahmed Shah who was suffering from renal cancer but also created inordinate delay in his hospitalization and essential diagnostic tests, said a Foreign Office statement. Even more heart-wrenching is the fact that the Indian authorities remained adamant in denying Shah’s family access to meet him while deliberately delaying the court hearing of his bail plea on humanitarian grounds, the statement said. It is evident that Altaf Ahmed Shah was victimized and punished because he was the son-in-law of revered Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani and a true representative of the Kashmiri people. His death is the consequence of the Indian government’s wilful and deliberate negligence, utter disregard for human rights and its systematic campaign to suppress and brutalize the Hurriyat leaders, the statement added. The government of Pakistan has demanded of the Indian government to immediately investigate the custodial death of Altaf Ahmed Shah and hold to account all those responsible for the brutality, the statement said. It further demanded that the mortal remains of Altaf Ahmed Shah be promptly returned to his family so that a proper burial of the deceased in accordance with their wishes can be carried out. The Government of India was also called upon to desist from unlawfully keeping the indigenous Kashmiri leadership hostage and denying them their fundamental human rights, immediately halt its state-sponsored terrorism in the IIOJK, release all political prisoners incarcerated on trumped-up charges, stop human rights violations, lift the inhuman military siege and let the people of IIOJK exercise their right to self-determination as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and as per their wishes.