Thaindian News

Siliguri, May 16 (IANS) Two companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were deployed on National Highway 31A near the West Bengal-Sikkim border in Darjeeling district Sunday on day two of the 48-hour shutdown called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) agitating for a separate Gorkhaland state.
The CRPF personnel were deployed near the Rangpo border, a day after stone-throwing GJM activists damaged several Sikkim-bound vehicles, including two buses carrying army personnel, on the first day of the shutdown the outfit called in three north Bengal areas it wants carved out as the separate state.

National Highway 31A is considered the lifeline of landlocked Sikkim which gets cut off from the rest of India during recurring shutdowns in Darjeeling as the agitators put up blockades on the highway.

“We decided to deploy the CRPF to prevent any more untoward incidents. Today the situation was peaceful and vehicles plied through the border, though their number was small,” Kalimpong Additional Superintendent of Police J.Dorji told IANS.

Meanwhile, the shutdown evoked a mixed response in the three hill sub-divisions - Kurseong, Kalimpong and Darjeeling - and the Terai or plains land of Darjeeling district and the Dooars (Himalayan foothills) in adjoining Jalapaiguri district.

The shutdown was total in Kurseong, Kalimpong and Darjeeling - with shops and markets remaining closed - and partial in Dooars. Siliguri and its adjoining areas did not feel the impact of the shutdown.

Meanwhile, the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi vikas Parishad (ABAVP) has called a three-day shutdown in the Dooars area from Monday protesting against discrimination in recruitment of primary teachers. Political tempers are again running high in the hills with the GJM calling a 10-day shutdown June 12-21 to press for the Gorkhaland demand.

The GJM, led by Bimal Gurung, has been agitating for the separate Gorkhaland state besides opposing special status to the hill governing body, the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC).