A day after police in a midnight raid busted a hide out of absconding Gorkha Janmukti Morcha chief Bimal Gurung inside Singla forests in Darjeeling-Sikkim border and seized huge quantities of arms and ammunition including AK 47 assault rifles and gelatin sticks, violence crept up in the vicinity of his residence at Patlebas where unknown miscreants burnt down several houses and ration shops, police said.
The arms were allegedly stock-piled by Gorkhaland Personnel a militia reportedly raised by the GJM chief booked under UAPA.
The incident took place in the small hours of Sunday when unknown miscreants --- that rebel GJM leader and nominated chairman of Gorkhaland Territorial Authority Benay Tamang sought to identify as Gurung-loyalists --- set the houses on fire. No one was however injured sources said. The gutted houses belonged to his supporters Dinesh Thing, Rajesh Thing, Prabin Subba and Amit Chand. Ration shop belonged to DK Gupta.
“Gurung’s house and the party office were not gutted though the fire engulfed the houses opposite his residence,” IGP Darjeeling range Manoj Verma said.
While Siliguri MlA and Minister Gautam Deb blamed Gurung’s supporters for the incident, others said it could be the handiwork of the breakaway group led by Benay Tamang.
In a related development the State BJP leadership blamed the Trinamool Congress Government for “pushing untrained police officers to fight militants with sophisticated arms in hilly and wooded terrains of Darjeeling that led to the tragic death of a sub-inspector Amitabh Mullick.”
The Government in its bid play to political game in Darjeeling was using innocent and untrained police personnel as pawns and pushing them to fight trained militants, the State BJP leaders alleged.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal Commission for Child Rights have issued summons to Gurung for his “repeated gross violation of child rights.”
Taking suo motu cognizance of televised reports where GJM supporters were seen attacking vehicles carrying school children WBCPCR chairperson Ananya Chakrbarty said “We have summoned them (Gurung) on October 23,” adding a summon was sent earlier also when the GJM leadership did not appear.