Darjeeling simmers in indefinite shutdown

TIL Desk/National/Darjeeling/ The northern West Bengal hills continued to simmer on Saturday as the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) sponsored indefinite shutdown entered the sixth day with police allegedly raiding and vandalising the residence of party assistant general secretary Binay Tamang.

The “Queen of the Hills” virtually turned into a battlefield as moves and counter moves were brought on by supporters of Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress and dominant hill party, the GJM.

At around 3 a.m., on Saturday, Tamang claimed his house was “raided and vandalised by the police and the Trinamool Congress cadres” in the same manner as they had raided party chief Bimal Gurung’s house in Darjeeling district two days ago.

GJM supporters pelted stones and lobbed petrol bombs at the residence of Trinamool Congress activist Deoraj Gurung in Lebong Cart Road and attempted to set the house on fire, claimed Deoraj.

The GJM announced an indefinite general strike from Monday in the hills encompassing Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts and the Dooars (foothills of the Himalayas covering stretches of Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar district) protesting against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s decision to make Bengali language compulsory in state-run schools.