CPI(M)'s Tarigami returns to the Valley after 10 days in Delhi

CPI(M) leader Mohd Yousuf Tarigami returned to Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday after a 10-day visit to New Delhi, allowed by the Supreme Court, to get treatment at the AIIMS.

The 72-year-old former Jammu and Kashmir MLA, who was in house arrest for 35 days before being taken to New Delhi on September 9 on the order of the apex court, received treatment for chest pain.

However, it was not clear whether Tarigami was taken into custody or detained by the local administration upon his arrival here.

The apex court had on Monday allowed Tarigami to go back to his home state, saying he does not need any permission to go home if doctors at the All India Institute Of Medical Science (AIIMS) allow him.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi with CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday, Tarigami criticised the Centre for detaining former chief minister Farooq Abdullah under the stringent Public Safety Act and said that "people across the border are clapping" that the government has done what they could not.

He had said that whatever is happening in Kashmir is not in the interest of the country.

"We, Abdullah and others are not terrorists. It is such a horrible time. I am very disturbed," he said.

While allowing treatment for the former MLA in New Delhi, the top court had said that Tarigami should be shifted "at the earliest" to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, from Srinagar, where he was under house arrest.

He was put under house arrest on August 5 after the Centre abrogated the special status to Jammu and Kashmir granted under Article 370 of the Constitution.

The top court had earlier allowed Yechury, who had filed a petition to visit Jammu and Kashmir to meet the ailing party colleague, to go to the state.

It has asked him to file an affidavit on his health condition upon his return.