Higher Secondary School, Anantnag but could not continue his studies due to affiliation with various students’ leagues for which was jailed at very early age.

[10] Shah's political career began in 1968 when at the age of 14,[11] he led a demonstration against the Indian government in Kashmir following which he was arrested and was kept in police lockup for three months.

During his confinement in Central Jail Srinagar, Shah met several resistance leaders including Nazir Ahmad Wani (Al-Fateh), Abdul Majid Pathan (Youth League), Altaf Khan alias Azam Inquilabi (Students Islamic Organization) and other leaders like Ghulam Qadir Hagroo with whom he discussed future plans for fighting for the right to self-determination.

Shabir Shah was arrested for the first time in 1968,[15] when he was aged 14, for organizing and leading a student demonstration to press the demand for what he claimed as the "right of self-determination" for the people of Kashmir.

Immediately after his release, he resumed his political activities by forming Young Men's League along with his colleagues for which he was arrested at Anantnag and was detained for 8 months in Srinagar's Central Jail.

In 1972, Shah organized demonstrations in Jammu and was arrested under the Defence of Indian Rules Act (DIR) and detained in Central Jail, Srinagar for eleven months.

In 1975, Shah denounced the Indira-Abdullah Accord signed by the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah.

[24] In 2021, a Chicago-based organisation Justice for All,[25] started the #FreeShabirShah campaign,[26] claiming that Shah has served 35 years in prison without any conviction and suffering from hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease.