Angry Mamata lashes out at Centre for ‘non-cooperation’; orders probe into communal flare-up

Police personnel at the Sonada toy train railway station that was set afire during an indefinite strike called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in Darjeeling on Saturday. AFP

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

Kolkata, July 8

The Army was today called in, the second time in 30 days, as Darjeeling and neighbouring Sonada erupted after the body of a youth was recovered in Sonada. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, blaming the BJP-led Union Government for the crisis, said if enough CRPF companies had been made available to the state in time, violence would not have occurred in the hills.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)“There is total non-cooperation from the Centre”, she alleged at a press conference here. “The Union Government did send seven companies of central forces after trouble broke out in Darjeeling, but six of the seven companies had inherent limitations as these consisted of three companies each of SSB and women CRPF personnel,” she said. Pointing out that personnel of the SSB and women CRPF were not geared up for the job at hand, Mamata said this only showed that “there was a deliberate attempt” by the Centre to deny her help. She announced a judicial inquiry into the communal violence in Baduria and Basirhat in North 24 Parganas district as well as a probe to ascertain who was responsible for the death of a young man at Sonada on Friday night.Young Tashi Bhutia’s body was found at Sonada this morning with bullet wounds. The Gorkha National Liberation Front, which had earlier spearheaded the movement for Gorkhaland but was reduced to a fringe force following the emergence of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), claimed that the deceased was one of its activists. “Another Gorkha martyred. Tashi Bhutia alias Khitta, a Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) cadre,  was last night martyred by CRPF in Sonada @ around 11 PM”, Neeraj Zimba Tamang, GNLF spokesman, posted on his Facebook page.Residents of Sonada took out a procession with Bhutia’s body and clashed with the police who used tear gas shells and rubber bullets to disperse the mob. Miscreants set afire the waiting room of the Sonada railway station — a heritage station on the Siliguri-Darjeeling toy train route. In Darjeeling, Gorkhaland supporters set ablaze an office of the ruling Trinamool Congress and clashed with the police at Chowkbazar. One person was reportedly killed in the violence.The Army was first deployed in Darjeeling on June 8 and withdrawn on June 24, much to the chagrin of the CM.