Condemning Police Excesses

Condemning the arrest of businessmen of the hills, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has threatened to launch a ‘jail bharo’ agitation against alleged police excesses.

The state government first resorted to arresting senior GJM leaders and activists with an aim to take the sting out of the agitation, and it now appears the government is looking to put a plug on the GJM’s funding sources.

Prominent Darjeeling-based businessman Brij Mohan Garg, president of the Darjeeling Chamber of Commerce, was on Wednesday morning arrested in Darjeeling. The business fraternity retaliated by downing their shutters for the day.

Kalimpong-based businessman Asoke Periwal was arrested on September 7, and two days later, the police picked up two persons from Sukhia Pokhari with unaccounted for bags of rice and more than Rs1 lakh in cash. All the detained persons are suspected of funding the GJM in its renewed movement for statehood.

“The manner in which innocent people are being arrested clearly indicates the confrontational attitude the state government has adopted,” said GJM general secretary Roshan Giri. “If this trend continues, we will start a jail bharo ‘andolan’ soon. The government will have to make arrangements to accommodate the huge number of people who will willingly court arrest.”

Giri also noted the central government must play a fitting role and make arrangements for tripartite talks to diffuse the current situation in the hills.

He said, “It is on the assurance and request of Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde that we decided to withdraw the strike. Now the onus is on the central government to prepare a positive environment for forging some solution.”

The Gorkhaland Joint Action Committee, a conglomeration of political and apolitical bodies that includes the GJM, has decided to wait and watch what measures the central government takes concerning the tripartite dialogue issue and convene on October 19 to chalk out future programmes.

“We will closely monitor the situation in New Delhi and take appropriate steps,” said Giri.

Meanwhile, GJM president Bimal Gurung has also condemned the arrest of the businessmen via a Facebook message.

“I am shocked to see the government's attitude towards the people of the hills. Innocent people are being arrested and charged with criminal cases. I condemn these cowardly acts of the state government to spread terror in the hills. I appeal to the people to continue to maintain peace going forward,” reads Gurung’s post.(EOI)