The GJM’s bid to take out a march to Sipchu in this district in protest against the February 8 firing on its activists was foiled by police today even as a tribal group began an indefinite bandh in Dooars area of West Bengal to oppose Gorkhaland.
The bandh by Adivasi Vikas Parishad began in the Dooars area even as the strike in Darjeeling entered its tenth day.
About 250 GJM activists during the day began a padayatra from Sankosh to Sipchu, the scene of police firing on the outfit’s activists last week which claimed three lives.
Police, however, stopped them at Hatipota, which is inhabited by a large number of Adivasis.
GJM president Bimal Gurung is camping at Kumani on the Jalpaiguri-Darjeeling border since February 11, demanding he be allowed by authorities to take out a padayatra to Sankosh in support of a separate state of Gorkhaland.
The bandh in Darjeeling is on to press for the demand and has hit normal life across the district.
