Hundreds of children participated in a pro-Gorkhaland rally in Darjeeling on Wednesday. Teenagers and even children wearing traditional attire held up posters and raised slogans in support of a separate State.
There were reports of sporadic violence in the hills as a few government offices, including that of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration’s (GTA) engineering office in Darjeeling, was set on fire in the early hours of Wednesday.
Two panchayat offices at Dhobitala and Rajbari were also torched.
There was fresh tension when police detained two GJM leaders, R.P. Bhujel and Samuel Gurung, in Darjeeling. They were on their way to Patleybas to meet GJM president Bimal Gurung.
“Police personnel detained us saying that we cannot go there as restrictions had been imposed,” Samuel Gurung, Assistant Secretary of GJM’s central committee, said. Mr. Bhujel said there was a blockade on the road and they were taken to the police station without any reason.
Soon after the detention, a large number of GJM leaders gathered outside the police station and shouted slogans. After two hours of protests the two GJM leaders were released on a personal bond.
According to senior officials of the Eastern Command, Army columns which were deployed in Darjeeling to assist the civil administration have been de-requisitioned. “The Army was de-requisitioned from Darjeeling and adjacent areas on June 24. The troops are not deployed in aid of the civil administration any more,” an Army spokesperson said.
Tea industry’s plea
The tea industry has sought the Centre’s intervention to help the Darjeeling tea estates, caught in the current impasse in the hills. All the estates have been shut since June 12 .
At a meeting here on Wednesday, the national committee and the Darjeeling Regional Committee of the Indian Tea Association noted with concern the mounting losses due to the closure of estates.
