A leader in the Bimal Gurung camp of the
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today said there were no deaths other than that
of a police officer in the gunfight that took place yesterday and added
that the party chief was not present in the area when the raid took
place.
The claim comes on a day speculation has been rife on
social media about deaths in the Gurung lobby in the gun battle near the
Little Rangeet river, where police officer Amitabha Malik was killed.
"There
were no casualties on Gurung's side. Everyone is fine. Even he is fine.
In fact, he was not present in the area when the incident took place,"
the leader said.
Although the Morcha leader declined to elaborate
if there were any injuries, he admitted that some party cadres were
staying in the camp and were caught by "surprise" when the police raided
the area.
"They were not aware of the police raid," he said.
Even
the police were not sure of casualties or injuries on the "other" side.
Darjeeling police chief Akhilesh Chaturvedi had said yesterday that
blood stains were seen at the spot.
The raid yesterday had
followed information that Gurung, who has several criminal cases against
him, was hiding in the camp, situated about 20km from Darjeeling near
the Sikkim border.
The police had claimed to have arrested one
person from the camp and seized a stockpile of arms, including nine
AK-47s, one Beretta, a 0.22-bore musket, 20 gelatine sticks, 1,800
bullets, 1,000 detonators, a binocular and a manpack radio. Police
officials maintain that this is one of the biggest arms hauls in the
state in recent memory.
Roshan Giri, the general secretary of the
Morcha, had alleged that the raid was an attempt to derail any talks
with the Centre and that the arms might have been planted.
Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh today said the arms haul was "suspect".
"How
does one know that the arms were found there? All of this sounds quite
suspect.... This is the ruling establishment's version," said Ghosh.
"Mamata Banerjee is trying to brand Gurung as a terrorist, have him
sidelined and eventually murdered."
Reacting to Ghosh's remarks,
Trinamul secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said: "Those who raise
doubts are a threat to the state and the nation's internal security."
During
the day, members of the Binay Tamang camp in the Morcha plastered
posters in Kalimpong saying there would be no "bandh" in the hills and
that they believed in achieving Gorkhaland through democratic means.
"Do not turn the peaceful hills into Kashmir, do not taint the patriotic Gorkhas as terrorists," the posters read.
The
state child rights commission today issued a notice to Gurung asking
him to appear before it in Calcutta on October 23 for allegedly using
schoolchildren in political rallies during school hours.
The
commission said that Gurung had earlier failed to appear before them,
following which it had directed the state government to draw up criminal
proceedings against him.
"Kindly note that if you do not comply
with this requirement, you will be liable to all the legal consequences
of ignoring directions of a lawful authority of competent jurisdiction,"
stated the October 10 order.
Delhi tapped
Sources
said the Bengal government had taken up issue with Delhi to ensure that
Gurung did not get any sympathy from a section of the BJP's national
leadership.
They said the state had already sent the details of
yesterday's incident to the Centre and had described vividly how
Gurung's associates had opened fire on the police and their alleged
links with extremist groups of the Northeast.
Source: The Telegraph
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