Security forces fire teargas shells to disperse Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters in Darjeeling on Saturday. AFP
Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service
Kolkata, June 17
Darjeeling turned into a war zone for a couple of hours today—sixth day of the indefinite bandh called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM)—with violent clashes between security forces and GJM supporters claiming the lives of at least two agitators.Around 35 security personnel were injured, including an IRB officer seriously.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)Army contingents were deployed to control the situation and they staged flag marches in various areas.Home Minister Rajnath Singh telephoned the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and discussed the situation prevailing there.The CM briefed the Home Minister about the steps being taken by the state government to maintain law and order and restore normalcy in the hill district, official sources said.From an undisclosed location, GJM chief Bimal Gurung released a video footage passionately appealing to the people to come out of their homes to protest against police action.Kiran Tamang, India Reserve Battalion (IRB) assistant commandant, was critically injured after being stabbed by miscreants. The CM claimed the police did not fire at GJM supporters.
It’s a conspiracy, says Mamata
- It is a deep-rooted conspiracy. So many bombs and arms cannot be gathered in a day… There is a terrorist brain behind this vandalism. — Mamata Banerjee, WB Chief Minister
Darjeeling turns battle zone as stir gets bloody
MAMATA FURIOUS Blames ‘terrorists’ as 4 protesters killed, policeman stabbed
Four people were allegedly killed in police firing and a security official was critically injured as a violent agitation for a separate Gorkha state turned the picturesque hill station of Darjeeling into a battle zone on Saturday.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee denied that police fired on protesters.
The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), which rules the semi-autonomous Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, said four of its supporters were killed in Darjeeling’s Singamari, where the party’s supporters attacked security forces with bricks and bottles, in one of the worst violence since the flare-up on June 8.
TV footage showed forces smoke billowing from tear gas shells and security forces firing from semi-automatic weapons.
“Police did not open fire. This is absolutely wrong,” Banerjee said in Kolkata even as she blamed the GJM of having links with militant outfits, based in the northeast, and foreign countries.
“There is a terrorist brain behind this hooliganism and vandalism. We have got clues that this has terrorist connections. They (GJM) have connections with underground insurgent groups of the northeast…,” she said. Kiran Tamang, an assistant commandant of the India Reserve Battalion was stabbed on the back with a traditional Gorkha knife known as ‘khukri’ as security forces struggled to contain thousands-strong mobs that torched police vehicles and ransacked government property, shouting anti-government slogans. His condition was said to be critical.
Scenes across Darjeeling and nearby Ghoom resembled a battlefield with charred buses, police vehicles and bricks strewn on the road. Officials said Tamang was among 35-odd security personnel injured in the violence, officials said, amid rising concerns that Darjeeling might lurch back to the unrest of the 80s, when hundreds died in a crackdown on the statehood movement.
The present crisis was sparked by fears of Bengali being imposed in schools in the GJM-administered areas where a majority of the people are Nepali-speaking Gorkhas. Though the government clarified that Bengali will be an optional subject, the GJM refused to back down and instead revived the almost 100-year-old demand for a separate Gorkhaland. A raid on the GJM’s office this week fanned anger.
Experts see the agitation as the GJM’s efforts to revive its political fortunes after the Trinamool made history by registering its first victory in a hill municipality in Mirik.