Back home, Kashmir cancer patient recalls four months in Bareilly prison

“Last week, I was about to ask for a doctor again when my chest started hurting but the guards came in and told me that I can go home,” he said.

Palla was arrested from his home after midnight on August 6 and booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA). The dossier prepared ahead of his arrest accused Palla of being a “threat to safety and security of general public and sovereignty of the nation”. After a day at Central Jail in Srinagar, he was flown to Bareilly along with 19 others.

His father Mohammad Ayoub Palla thanked the courts and added that the family had exhausted all the resources at its disposal to bring Parvaiz back and are now struggling to fund his treatment. “All the money we had was spent on this. I begged and borrowed, I could not have let my son stay in prison in this condition. We have been set back financially and doctors say his treatment has suffered,” he said.

Parvaiz said he was allowed to walk for half-an-hour in the morning and evening daily outside his cell. “I was not sure my family even knew where I was. My treatment was not on my mind at all,” he said.

Narrating the ordeal of finding his son, Ayoub said that a couple of days after Parvaiz’s arrest, he went to Central Jail in Srinagar and asked about him. “An official posted there directed me to a list outside the jail premises. I had never been outside Kashmir and it was daunting to see that he had been transported outside,” he said.

Ayoub said that the first time he travelled to Bareilly with medicines, jail authorities did not allow him to meet Parwaiz. He was able to meet him on October 25, he said. “When I held him in my arms, he told me, ‘Why did you come all the way?’ And I broke down.”

Sitting beside his two sons, aged 9 years and 11 years, Parvaiz said, “I just want to be able to live now. Hamein zinda rehne ka haq de dijiye. Our family has suffered and I know there are more suffering. Please let us live in peace.”