Will visit Kashmir Thursday, report to SC: Yechury

New Delhi: Soon after the Supreme Court gave him the permission, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Wednesday that he will visit the Kashmir Valley to meet his party's ailing leader Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami on Thursday.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader said: "I had filed a petition in Supreme Court to produce Tarigami. The court has now permitted me to visit Tarigami and report to the court on his health condition and from there the case will proceed further.

"So the case is not closed as this is an interim order... With this order, the authorities should facilitate my visit," he said.

His remarks came after the Supreme Court order came on the CPI-M leader's habeas corpus petition challenging the detention of Tarigami ahead of the abrogation of Article 370 by the government on August 5.

The plea stated that Tarigami was not in good health and Yechury wanted to meet him.

The apex court told Yechury not to use his visit for any other purpose and said the government was free to send back the CPI-M leader if he did anything in violation of the court order.

Yechury has twice tried to visit Jammu and Kashmir -- once with CPI General Secretary D. Raja on August 9 and then with a delegation of opposition party leaders on August 24.

On both occasions, the administration prevented Yechury from visiting Srinagar and he was sent to Delhi from the Srinagar airport.