India: Communist party demands release of Kashmir political activists

M/S Protesters
M/S Protesters holding signs
M/S Protesters
M/S CPI signs
M/S Indian opposition parties protest against Kashmir detentions in New Delhi
M/S Protesters
M/S Protest stage
M/S CPI member Brinda Karat talking
C/U Secretary General of Communist Party of India (CPI) Sitaram Yechury at protest
SOT, Sitaram Yechury, Secretary General of Communist Party of India: "We are saying that if everything is normal as the government claims, why are the leaders of political parties, former chief ministers of the*INAUDIBLE*members of parliament today: why are they kept in prison? Why are there normal people who have been arrested if everything is normal? Why did people like me who went there to see, to meet *INAUDIBLE*the party people, were not allowed to leave the airport? So there is something the government is hiding and they want to convert Kashmir like an occupied territory, like what Israel is doing with Palestinians."
M/S Protesters holding signs
M/S Protesters
SOT, Doraisamy Raja, Secretary of Communist Party of India: "Everybody knows what is happening in Jammu and Kashmir, article 370 has been abrogated now their state has been downgraded to union territories, there is curfew."
M/S Protesters holding signs
M/S Protesters
SOT, Doraisamy Raja, Secretary of Communist Party of India: "Thousands of political activists are being arrested and they are kept in prison, are under house arrest. Political leaders, look at the way mister Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah *INAUDIBLE* they are all being kept under house arrest. Why should that happen? Now the challenge is how to win the trust of the people of Jammu and Kashmir."
M/S 'Release political prisoners in Kashmir' sign
M/S Protest speaker
M/S Protest
SOT, Bindu, female worker and activist: "We are demanding that because the government is saying everything is okay there in the state of Kashmir but then why the people, the leaders of political parties and even ordinary workers of the parties and even the social activists are all detained and they are kept in prison: why then? So we are demanding the immediate release of all those who are detained and kept in custody and in detention and in prison so this is all we are demanding."
M/S CPI 'Kashmir release political prisoners' sign
M/S CPI members on podium
C/U Protester
M/S Protesters
SCRIPT
Dozens of India's Communist Party (CPI) members gathered in New Delhi to the immediate release of 'political activists’ detained in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday.
Footage shows people gathering, holding signs with appeals to the Indian government and CPI leaders talking on stage about the issue.
"There is something the government is hiding and they want to convert Kashmir like an occupied territory, like what Israel is doing with Palestinians," said the Secretary General of the CPI Sitaram Yechury adding "why are there normal people who have been arrested if everything is normal?"
"We are demanding the immediate release of all who are detained and kept in custody," said another activist. Her question is why the government claims "everything is okay" in Jammu and Kashmir but then "the people, the leaders of political parties and even ordinary workers of the parties and even the social activists are all detained and they are kept in prison."
Indian-administered Kashmir has been on lockdown since the Indian government stripped the region of its autonomous status three weeks ago, imposed a curfew and shut down all communications. The move angered Pakistan, which responded by cutting off diplomatic and economic ties with India.