More than 2,500 supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), including its general secretary Roshan Giri, and several senior leaders courted arrest while demonstrating outside various police stations in the Darjeeling Hills, West Bengal, on Sunday. They were released later in the day.
The demonstrators were demanding the release of 18 persons arrested in connection with the violence at Sukna in the foothills on February 21 when the police outpost there was set on fire, allegedly by GJM activists.
“They assembled in front of the Darjeeling Sadar, Kalimpong, Kurseong, Jaldhaka Mirik and Gorubathan thanas where they courted arrest voluntarily,” the district’s Superintendent of Police, D.P. Singh, told The Hindu over the telephone.
As for the demand to release those arrested in connection with the Sukna incident, the matter was now in the local court, he added.
GJM supporters, who included a large number of women, demonstrated outside the thanas where they raised slogans against alleged police atrocities on their colleagues in the Darjeeling Hills.
“Such demonstrations will continue tomorrow [Monday]. We are protesting against the arrest of innocent persons in connection with the Sukna incident as well as reiterating our demand for withdrawal of all Central forces from the region,” Mr. Giri said.
More forces were likely to join the three companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) deployed in the hills last week to ensure smooth movement of traffic along the national highway to Sikkim, a stretch of which passes through the Darjeeling Hills, according to Inspector-General of Police (North Bengal) K.L. Tamta.
“I have been told that another five companies of the CRPF are being sent to the region but only to ensure that there are no blockades along the national highway to Sikkim,” Mr. Tamta said.
The State government has expressed its concern over the recent violence in the Darjeeling Hills, which, it fears, could vitiate the atmosphere for future tripartite talks involving it, the Centre and the GJM leadership to resolve the crisis in the region arising from the GJM’s demand for a separate Gorkhaland State to be carved out Darjeeling district and certain areas contiguous to it.
