In 1975, Shabir Shah denounced the "Indira-Abdullah Accord" signed by the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah. He was arrested and tortured in the most notorious interrogation centres like Red-Sixteen and Bagh-i-Mehtab in Srinagar for 4 months and subsequently confined in Central Jail, Srinagar for another 30 months. After his release in 1978, Shah immediately began his underground political activities.