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Members of People's Movement for Gorkhaland carry a 110 mt-long Tri-Colour during a peace march from Rajghat to Jantar Mantar in demand for separate Gorkhanland, in New Delhi on Sunday. PTI Photo[/caption]
New Delhi, July 9 (PTI/IANS): With a 110-metre long national flag, Gorkhaland supporters today marched in the national capital to reinforce their demand for a separate state and the immediate imposition of President’s Rule in West Bengal.
Protestors belonging to the Gorkha Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti (GSSS) here demanded the Centre’s intervention in removing paramilitary forces with immediate effect.
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Members of People's Movement for Gorkhaland during their Tri-Colour peace march from Rajghat to Jantar Mantar in demand for separate Gorkhanland, in New Delhi on Sunday. PTI Photo[/caption]
“The West Bengal government is treating common people like terrorists and killing them. The central government should remove paramilitary forces and terminate the services of the Director General of Police,” GSSS president Kiran B K told PTI.
The protesters marched from Rajghat to Jantar Mantar carrying the flag, depicting 110 years of their struggle for separate state.
The march culminated at Jantar Mantar where they joined their co-supporters who had been protesting for three weeks now.
“Just like Bengalis have their identity, we are fighting for ours. We are getting killed for seeking the rights we deserve. The Centre should look into the issue,” said Stuti Thami of Darjeeling, adding that she was “ready to die” but not to stay under the West Bengal government.
Some of the placards that protesters carried criticised the BJP for its “attitude before and after the elections”.
Violence on in Darjeeling hills, funeral rallies held amid tight security
Darjeeling: Sporadic incidents of violence and funeral rallies by pro-Gorkhaland protesters marked the 25th day of the GJM-sponsored indefinite shutdown in the north West Bengal hills on Sunday after a fresh flare-up following the death of three activists allegedly in police firing.
The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) leadership claimed that three of their activists were shot dead by police on Saturday.
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Amid tight security arrangements by police and other security forces, the GJM supporters on Sunday afternoon brought out three funeral rallies with the bodies of the deceased.
Police denied it was to blame. Earlier in the day, police accused the agitators of setting the Sub-divisional office in Kurseong on fire, resulting in the building getting partially burnt.
The pro-Gorkhaland activists also torched the Pokhribing Panchayat office and vandalised a police outpost in Darjeeling’s Pokhari on Sunday.
State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee strongly criticised the vandalism in the hills and claimed that “some foreign countries” close to GJM are fueling the ongoing agitation.
“What they are doing is undemocratic and condemnable. It is obvious that some forigen countries close to GJM are influencing the agitation,” Chatterjee alleged.
Two prominent political parties in the hills -- the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha and the Gorkha National Liberation Front -- claimed that one of the deceased, Tashi Bhutia was their active party member.
BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav today hit out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saying the current unrest in her state was “a home-grown project” of the ruling Trinamool Congress for “political advantage”.
He also said cow protection was a “sacred mission” but people must understand that they cannot lynch anybody under the pretext of protecting it as “life was more sacred”.
Delivering a speech on “Integral Humanism - eternal and ever contemporary”, organised by a group -- ‘Awareness in Action’ -- here, Madhav said, “Today, if you see the unrest in Bengal it is actually a home-grown project of Mamata Banerjee, because in unrest lies her political advantage.”
“Does it really pain you (Banerjee) that in your state on one hand Gorkha people are agitating, you don’t listen to them and on the other hand there are communal riots?” he asked.
“You only blame others, you have no answer to it,” Madhav said.
Banerjee had yesterday accused the Modi government and the BJP of trying to “disturb peace” and of “deliberate and total non-cooperation”.
She had alleged that the Centre’s refusal to send CRPF personnel, as demanded by the state government, had led to the current situation in the Darjeeling hills where the indefinite shutdown entered its 25th day today.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the event, Madhav said the Trinamool Congress was “squarely responsible” for the “grave” law-and-order situation in West Bengal.
On the issue of cow protection, Madhav said for Indians everything was sacred.
“We are a worship-centric society, but the country has to understand this sacredness properly... Cow is sacred, cow protection is sacred, but remember life is the most sacred thing,” he said, adding the sacredness of cow was to be protected, but one cannot spoil the “sacredness of life”.
“You cannot lynch anybody in the name of protecting something,” the BJP leader said.
To a question about China reportedly denying VISAs for a scheduled trip of the India Foundation, a think tank with links to the BJP, Madhav said it had been settled and the delegation was going there as scheduled.
