'We don't want heavens, allow us to march together'

"Truth is, Kashmiris are dying a slow death. We are being suffocated there. We also want to live. A Kashmiri, an Indian is saying this. This is my appeal. Listen to us also... We are not asking for heavens, we only ask for a chance to march together with you."

This is what an emotional Mohd Yousuf Tarigami, a CPM leader who was in detention in Jammu and Kashmir and the first to be brought to Delhi following a habeas corpus petition in Supreme Court, responded during his first interaction with media here.

Addressing a press conference along with CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, he asked can the government gain the trust of people by jailing them, beating them up and by blocking communication channels among other things.

The press meet came a day after Supreme Court said he was free to travel to Srinagar. He was brought to Delhi earlier this month for treatment following a Supreme Court order on a habeas corpus petition filed by Yechury.

Tarigami, who will be filing a writ petition on behalf of CPM in Supreme Court challenging the scrapping of special status and bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories, said the haste in which the Narendra Modi government went ahead with its plans on Article 370 and reorganisation of the state showed its "desperation".

"The very foundation of the unity of people of Jammu and Kashmir with the Union of India is getting assaulted by those who are mandated to protect the foundations of the Constitution. It is surprising to me. Rather I am shocked. We are not having much expectations from today's regime. I never thought they were so desperate that with one stroke they would say goodbye to those fundamentals," he said.

"We don't want to be killed. We don't want to destroyed. Farooq Abdullah and all others are not terrorists. Tarigami does not want to be an alien element to my country. I am not a foreigner," he said.

On the situation in Kashmir, he asked why the Kashmiris are being deprived of the facilities that the rest of the country enjoys. "Can any other city, be it Delhi or any other city, can go without internet, phones? Why don't we have access to telephones and the internet? There are livelihood issues. Treat every Kashmiri as an Indian.”

When asked about government claims that not a single bullet has been fired in Kashmir since August 5 when the special status was scrapped, he shot back alluding that the whole of Kashmir is now a prison, "in jails, bullets are not fired."