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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

GJM activists turn violent after raid on party chief’s house

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Darjeeling: The West Bengal hills saw widespread violence on Thursday as irate Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters torched a police outpost and stoned security forces in angry reaction to a police raid on party chief Bimal Gurung’s house in Darjeeling district.


The GJM activists, with their women’s wing Nari Morcha in the vanguard, virtually surrounded the police force as they were returning after the raid on Gurung’s house in Patlebas, and started stoning the police from elevated areas in the hills.


Several police personnel were injured in the stoning. In response, the security forces lobbed tear gas shells at the protesters after a baton charge failed to control the situation.


Large police reinforcements arrived in the area. Some vehicles, including one belonging to a media house, were set on fire. In neighbouring Kalimpong district, alleged GJM supporters torched the Pedong police outpost.


Accusing the state government of “high handedness and oppression”, GJM General Secretary Roshan Giri appealed to the central and state governments to intervene and sort out the “political problem”.


“The GJM has not started the violence in the hills. The state government did. They are trying to suppress us using the police. To protest against the police high handedness, we are calling for an indefinite general strike in the hills,” Giri said.


“This is a political problem, not a law and order situation. The Government of India and the government of West Bengal should solve it politically,” Giri said.


Police raided Gurung’s house on Thursday morning, amid the ongoing GJM-sponsored indefinite shut down in the hills, and said they have seized bows and arrows, knives, axes, explosives and a large quantity of cash.


“Two persons have been detained so far in the incident,” Akhilesh Kumar Chaturvedi, the superintendant of police of Darjeeling district said.


“It seems that they gathered all these arms to attack the police. No peace loving person can have this amount of arms in store,” he claimed.


Refuting the police allegations, Giri said the bows and arrows stored in the party office was for the annual archery programme of the local schools.


“What have they found? Bow and arrow? That is a traditional weapon in the hills. Those were stored for the annual archery programme of the nearby schools,” Giri claimed.


Meanwhile, the women Morcha activists gathered outside Gurung’s house in large numbers and demonstrated demanding a separate state of Gorkhaland. — IANS


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