SRINAGAR: Ruwa Shah, granddaughter of late separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani, is likely to enter mainstream politics and join Mehbooba Mufti-led People’s Democratic Party (PDP), according to sources.A freelance journalist who has been contributing to various national and international publications, Ruwa has not spoken about the possible move, but PDP members said she was welcome to join the party. “It (PDP) is her own home and her own party. The party president considers her like a daughter,” a PDP functionary said.Quoting Mehbooba, another party member said Ruwa could be a valuable contributor to Kashmir if she joined politics, as she “has seen so much and suffered”.Ruwa’s father and Geelani’s son-in-law, Altaf Ahmad Shah alias Fantoosh, was also a separatist who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency in 2018, along with several others, in a terror funding case. He died in AIIMS-Delhi in Oct 2022 while lodged in Tihar Jail. Her pinned tweet of Oct 11, 2022, reads, “After more than five years, my Abbu is back to his home, buried in his ancestral graveyard, next to his father.
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Ya Allah Shukr.”In Oct 2021, Ruwa’s brother, Anees-ul-Islam, was removed from his position as a research officer at the govt-owned Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre in Srinagar. He had been appointed to the post in 2016, during the PDP-BJP govt headed by Mehbooba.
