NEW DELHI: CPM leader Mohammed Yousuf Tarigami on Sunday dubbed the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir as "emergency" while asserting that "the current silence at gunpoint cannot be considered as normalcy".
The 72-year-old leader was detained after Jammu and Kashmir's special status was revoked on August 5.
He was brought from Srinagar under police escort on September 9 and admitted to a premier medical institute, where he will remain in detention under the guard of Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel.
"There is no freedom to write and speak and it appears that people in the valley don't have freedom to see.
There are restrictions everywhere, the current situation is better described as emergency," Taligami said while addressing a press conference here along with party general secretary Sitaram Yechury.
"The silence at gun point in valley can't be considered as normalcy," he said.
He made an emotive appeal that the people in Kashmir also have a right to live happily with each other and enjoying all their rights.
Due to these restrictions, 40 per cent of the saffron was not lifted in time and got damaged, he said, adding that economic condition of farmers is very bad in the state.
Tarigami is also a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Central Committee.