Peace is still not a feeling that the people in the hills of Wes Bengal are getting. The Gorkha Janmukti Morch, supporters along with other local parties were demonstrating protest demanding a separate statehood for the Gorkhas. The protest went on for as long as 105 days, called off on 27 Sep, resulting in a massive loss of lives and business.
Just as the region was coming back to normalcy, violence once again broke out in the hills. At 5 am in the morning on 13 Oct, the violence broke out when the police search party raided a hideout inside the forest near the Patlebas area. According to the police, they had got information from their sources that the GJM Chief, Bimal Gurung, was hiding out in the forest near Patlebas area, which was considered a stronghold of Gurung.
Bimal Gurung, who had been leading the protest on the hills from past few months, holding strikes and an indefinite shutdown in Darjeeling, demanding a separate statehood for the Gorkhas, has been on the search list of the police for quite some time. In August, cases under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act were registered against him for his alleged involvement in various bomb blasts in Darjeeling and adjoining areas, since then, Bimal has been absconding.
Responding to the recent violence in Darjeeling, the expelled GJM leader and Chairman of the Board of Administrators (BoA) for Darjeeling Binay Tamang said that the people of the region “will not allow Darjeeling to turn into Kashmir”.
Binay on Sunday met the West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi in New Delhi. He said that the meeting was a courtesy call after he was made the chairman of the BoA by the West Bengal government. During the meeting, Tamang urged the Governor to talk to the Centre to initiate tripartite talks to solve the Gorkhaland issue.
He also apprised the governor of recovery of a large cache of arms and ammunition during the raid on Friday. In his statement to the press after the meeting at the Rajbhavan, Binay Tamang said that “We have told him that we are willing to talk to the Centre on the Darjeeling issue. The Centre must intervene as soon as possible and call us for talks on all the pending issues, including Gorkhaland.”
He also added that no tripartite talks involving the GTA have been held since 2015. He further told that the location of Darjeeling where the unrest is prevailing is rather crucial and strategic owing to its international borders with Nepal and Bhutan. He said that keeping this in mind the discussions should be held as soon as possible.
Tamang also told that the incident that took place on Friday was tragic and requested the police conduct a proper investigation and that no innocent persons be arrested.
The expelled GJM leader also informed that he along with party colleague and BoA vice chairman Anit Thapa had met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday. He also said that they along with three other GJM leaders are likely to meet Banerjee again on 16 Oct, seeking a solution to get back peace in the hills.
Mamata Banerjee had last month formed a nine-member board of administrators to look into the development works in the Darjeeling and Kalimpong hills.
Meanwhile, since the indefinite shutdown was called off in Darjeeling on 27 Sep, the Home Ministry on Sunday ordered that as many as 1,000 paramilitary personnel, including 300 women, deployed in Darjeeling to maintain law and order, should be withdrawn. In a statement issued the Ministry said that “seven companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), including three women companies, and three companies of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel would be withdrawn from Darjeeling from Monday.”
The situations in the hills have improved in past few days, however, still, some clashes are taking place in the region. Therefore to assist the state police force five additional companies of the CRPF will be in the hills.