GJM calls off bandh in Dooars, Terai

Siliguri/Jalpaiguri/Darjeeling, Feb 12 (IBNS): The stalemate in Darjeeling went on for the fourth day and the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha refused to back down from its Gorkhaland demand even as it called off the bandh in Dooars and Terai late Saturday.

The GJM’s protests began following the shootout on Feb. 8, the toll for which has risen to three.

Mita Khawas, who was shifted to a Siliguri nursing home from a Kalimpong hospital on Friday, breathed her last on Saturday morning, bringing the number of deaths to three.

Khawas was the resident of Kurseong succumbed to bullet injuries.

On Tuesday, Feb. 8 a 24-year-old woman and 16-year–old boy were killed when police resorted to firing after being attacked by a violent mob at Sipchu in the Dooars.

GJM supremo Bimal Gurung has told Central interlocutor Maj Gen (retd) Vimal Madan that nothing short of their demand for a separate state was acceptable to them too cool of their

The centre’s appointed emissary had called on the GJM president at Kumani under Jaldhacca police station. Gurung had been camping for past week in a forest with hundreds of supporters after being asked to stop march and go back to his residence in the hills.

GJM’s spokesman Harka Bahadur Chettri said bandh has been called off from the Dooars and Terai but would continue in the three-hill sub-divisions Darjeeling, Kruseong and Kalimpong to protest police firing at Sipchu.

Madan, after arriving here had meeting with the magistrates of Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts at the circuit house and then drove straight to Kumani under Jaldhaka police station to call on GJM supremo Bimal Gurung.

In the circuit house meeting Darjeeling’s magistrate Mohan K Gandhi, and police super D P Singh and their Jalpaiguri counterparts Bandana Yadav and Anup Jaiswal were present.

Gurung, who has been camping with hundreds of his supporters in the forests for past weeks, earlier threatened that any attempt to arrest him, will unleash a spate of violence and the state government will be responsible for the consequences.

An FIR was lodged against Gurung and four other GJM leaders by the Nagerkata police in Jalpaiguri on Feb. 9 for violence in public, illegal assembly and encroaching forest areas.

Madan told reporters that he would convey the matter to the central leaders about the outcome of the meetings with the administration and GJM leadership.

He expressed sadness with the deaths, saying any loss of life was not a good thing.

In Kolkata West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said the government was ready to hold talks with GJM leaders once they shun violence.

He said the problem of Darjeeling could be sorted out through peceful political talks and the government was ready for it.

Get Updates by eMail: Submit eMail Here