The family of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik, currently lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail, on Saturday said that he is ill and has been shifted to a hospital.

Family members said that when they had gone to meet Malik in Delhi earlier, authorities told them that he was on a hunger strike.

Malik was shifted to hospital by authorities after he remained on hunger strike for 12 days, they said.

Markets in the Maisuma area here - where Malik hails from - closed spontaneously on Saturday after news about Malik's illness spread.

In custody since February, Malik was arrested by the National Investigation Agency on April 9 and brought to Delhi, where a court on April 10 sent him to the agency's custody till April 22 after it sought his custodial interrogation in connection with a case related to alleged funding of separatists and militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir.

--IANS

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