Olympian dies at 82
DARJEELING, July 25: Olympian and veteran football player Chandan Singh Rawat has died. Rawat who would turn 83 tomorrow was ailing from heart problems for the past one year and was bed ridden since February after he fell down and cracked his hipbone. He was admitted to a Siliguri nursing home on Thursday when his condition grew serious.
The octagenerian sportsman born and brought up in Dehradun played in the Indian football team at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952. He settled down in Darjeeling in 1957. “It is a great loss for the nation. We are proud he was our father. Though he was invited to play for many foreign countries he just wanted to play for his own country,” his daughter Mrs Manju Rawat said. n SNS
Olympian footballer Chandan Singh Rawat passes away
Thaindian News
New Delhi, July 25 (IANS) Former footballer Chandan Singh Rawat, who was part of the 1951 Asian Games gold winning squad, passed away in Darjeeling Thursday. Rawat was in his 80s. He was also a part of the team that took part in the Helsinki Olympics in 1952.
He played for East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Rajasthan Club in Kolkata in 1950s.
GJMM supporter dies in ‘GNLF firing’
Statesman News Service
DARJEELING, July 25: A Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) supporter ~ Pramila Sharma (38) ~ was shot dead allegedly by GNLF leader Mr Deepak Gurung when a mob stormed his house today. In the violence that followed, the crowd set fire to Mr Gurung’s house (photograph right) and three of his vehicles. The houses of GNLF president Mr Subash Ghisingh and some other GNLF leaders ~ Mr NB Khawas, Mr Tika Rai, Mr NK Kumai ~ as well as Glenary’s Restaurant, a Darjeeling landmark, were damaged by the violent mob.
According to the GJMM, the women and youth wings of the party had gone to agitate near the Zakir Hussain Road residences of GNLF president Mr Subash Ghisingh and party leaders Mr Deepak Gurung and Mr NB Khawas. GJMM said its supporters had been baited by GNLF members while sloganeering near Mr Ghisingh’s residence and they had pelted stones at Mr Ghisingh’s residence. The GJMM activists simultaneously damaged Mr Khawas’ residence before proceeding to Mr Gurung’s residence. Two shots were allegedly fired from Mr Gurung’s home, injuring Pramila Sharma in her abdomen. She later died in Darjeeling District Hospital, Mrs Urmila Rumba, convenor of Gorkha Jana Mukti Nari Morcha (GJNM), said. Mr Gurung, who was confined to his house for almost two hours during the violence was escorted out by police.
The GJMM has filed an FIR demanding the arrest of Mr Ahitaraj Dewan, Mr Tilak Dewan, Mr Hem Gurung, Mr NK Kumai, Mr Norsang Sherpa, Mr Amar Tamang and seven others who, it alleged, had been present along with Mr Gurung when the shots were fired. Shops put up shutters and Darjeeling grew tense after the violence.
The situation was brought under control towards the evening. “Six vehicles and houses of GNLF leaders were damaged by the mob. According to reports, a woman was shot in the firing. We are investigating. Mr Deepak Gurung has been arrested and sent to an undisclosed location in view of the present situation. Other GNLF leaders have been detained. We appeal to the GJMM to maintain peace,” IG (special) Mr DT Lepcha said. “Additional forces are on their way,” he added.
Darjeeling burns again, violence spreads
TimesNow
Darjeeling, in North Bengal once again witnessed widespread violence when supporters of rival camps of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) clashed on Friday (July 25).
The violence started when a GJM affiliated faction started agitating in front of GNLF strongman Subhash Ghising’s house Lalkuthi in Darjeeling pelting stones at his house. Tension escalated after a member of the Gorkha Janmukti Nari Morcha, women’s wing of the GJM, was allegedly shot dead when Morcha activists gheraoed the house of GNLF’s Darjeeling branch committee president Dipak Gurung.
The 120-strong newly constituted Commando Force, along with the Combat Force and RAF have been deployed in various sensitive areas like Chowk Bazaar and Singhmari. Additional forces have also been rushed from Silliguri to contain the violence.
Police said at least 2,000 activists of the Nari Morcha laid a siege to the residence of Gurung on BT Road in Darjeeling and hurled stones after “coming to know” that he was holding a closed-door meeting with the GNLF (Gorkha national Liberation Front) local leaders.
Police quoted the Morcha members as saying that ‘a gun shot from inside Gurung’s house hit one Pramila Sharma.’ She was immediately taken to a hospital where she was declared brought dead.
Later, they ransacked Gurung’s house and set it on fire. They also set ablaze two vehicles parked outside and proceeded to Darjeeling police station and demanded that Gurung be handed over to them.
The IG (north Bengal), KL Tamta, rushed to the area with police reinforcements. He said the situation in the hills was tense but under control and that all business establishments had closed down immediately after the news spread.
Nobody from the GNLF spoke on the incidents when contacted.
GJM president, Bimal Gurung, told news agencies that 25 rounds were fired from Gurung’s residence. He said that he was holding an emergency meeting with GNLF leaders.
He threatened that his organisation would launch a bigger movement if the “killers” of its woman member was not arrested and assault on its leaders and supporters was not stopped.
An FIR had been filed at the police station, he said. “As far as I have heard, the attackers clashed with GNLF members and several rounds were fired,” state Home Secretary, Asok Mohan Chakraborty said.
Describing the situation as tense, he said the Darjeeling district magistrate and superintendent of police were campingn at the spot to maintain law and order.
“Our immediate priority is to ensure that the situation does not flare up again,” he said.
(With inputs from PTI)
GNLF leaders under siege in Hills
The Times of India
DARJEELING: A woman supporter of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha was killed when a mob went on the rampage, attacking the houses of Subash Ghisingh and five other Gorkha National Liberation Front leaders in Darjeeling on Friday.
GJM spokesman Binay Tamang said Pramila Sharma (36) died when a bullet struck her in the abdomen outside the house of GNLF president (Darjeeling unit) Deepak Gurung on Zakir Hussain Road. He alleged that the shot was fired from inside Gurung’s house while GJM workers were demonstrating against the GNLF leader.
Angered by the death of their colleague, the demonstrators set Gurung’s house on fire. Police rescued the GNLF leader and his supporters. Gurung was arrested after GJM lodged an FIR against him and 14 others, said special IGP (Darjeeling range) D T Lepcha.
Sources said the attacks on the GNLF leaders took place following reports about Ghisingh trying to revive his organisation. GNLF has remained inactive ever since GJM activists forced Ghisingh – who ruled the Hills with an iron hand for nearly 20 years – to resign as caretaker administrator of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council on March 10.
Trouble began around 1.40 pm when some GJM supporters, who were taking out their daily routine demonstration, laid siege to Ghisingh’s house on Zakir Hussain Road. The demonstrators turned violent as they chanted anti-Ghisingh slogans and hurled stones at his three-storey house. Ghisingh remained confined in his house all through the attack. Following that, the GJM activists marched towards the house of GNLF secretary (Kurseong unit) N B Khawas, located close to Ghisingh’s residence. Khawas, though, managed to pacify the attackers by saying he was not involved in any kind of political activity.
Police grope for answers after bullet burst
– Death sparks rampage
OUR CORRESPONDENT – The Telegraph
Darjeeling, July 25: Hours after a Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporter was killed by bullets fired from a multi-storey owned by GNLF leader Deepak Gurung, no one knows for sure how many people were inside the building when the incident took place.
All that is known is that after the Morcha supporters surrounded the house, a volley of shots in three bursts, possibly from an automatic weapon, rained on them and a woman lay sprawled on the road, bleeding profusely.
The Morcha supporters appeared confused about the chain of events that was over in a matter of minutes.
“We were calling for Gurung when a boy came outside and told us that the GNLF leader was not at home and had gone to Siliguri,” said a woman Morcha supporter who did not want to be named. “We were engaged in the conversation and I doubt if anyone was keeping a watch on the building as we were not expecting any firing to take place. But suddenly the bullets rang out.”
Police, when they arrived at the spot, found Gurung crouching in a small room on the ground floor of the building, although he and his family live on the second and third floors. By then, the second floor was already up in flames.
The GNLF leader has reportedly claimed that there was no one else at home at that time other than an old woman. She was brought out minutes before the house was stormed by the Morcha supporters and set on fire.
Gurung’s family members — wife and two daughters — were not found in the house either.
As a result, there is no answer as to who fired the bullets that claimed the life of Pramila Sharma.
The police are tight-lipped and have whisked Gurung off to an undisclosed location after his arrest. What has emerged from his interrogation is yet to be revealed.
The law enforcers claim they are as much in the dark as the public.
“It is reported that there were some people in the house, but that is yet to be verified,” said IG, special, north Bengal, D. Lepcha. “If there were (some people), they must have fled. No firearms have been recovered either.”
Police sources revealed that if there were indeed one or more persons in the building, they could have easily escaped from the back of the house in the ten minutes it took the Morcha supporters to storm the building after the firing.
The house is on the slope of a hill. Anyone inside the building — and not necessarily in Gurung’s house on the second and third floors — could have got out of the back and escaped down the slope and disappeared in the lanes and bylanes below without being spotted or arousing suspicion.
Neighbours have told the police that whenever the GNLF leader was in Darjeeling and at home, there would usually be around three-four party supporters with him.
“He was an important man before the Morcha usurped all powers in the hills,” a neighbour said. “Even now, there are always people around Gurung whenever he is at home.”
The police are not discounting the possibility that one of Gurung’s supporters might have opened fire. However, at the moment, they do not have any proof.
“There are far too many unanswered questions,” said a police official.
“We can come to some kind of conclusion only after a thorough interrogation of Gurung and the other occupants of the building,” he added.
Czech duo get bail with riders
– Prosecution told to file report on August 12
OUR CORRESPONDENTn – The Telegraph
Darjeeling, July 25: Czech scientist Petr Svacha and his associate Emil Kuchera were today granted interim bail by the court of the chief judicial magistrate after they spent more than a month in Darjeeling Correctional Home on charges of illegally collecting beetles and other insects from Singalila National Park.
“The duo are fine and were released from the correctional home around 4.30pm. They have been put up in a hotel in Darjeeling,” said Bdayn Gurung, a defence lawyer.
Another defence lawyer, Seshmani Gurung, said: “Our clients have been granted interim bail on the condition that they will not travel out of the Darjeeling subdivision without the court’s permission and that they will report to the investigating officer twice a week. Their passport will be in the custody of forest officials until the prosecution report is filed.”
The prosecution can take up to 60 days from the date of the arrest to file the report. However, in this case, the judge has directed that it should be filed on August 12.
The Czechs were arrested from a lodge near Rimbick, about 80km from Darjeeling town, on June 22, with a large cache of beetles and insects. The hearing of their bail plea was postponed more than once because of a ceasework by hill lawyers and a strike by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in all government offices, including courts, across Darjeeling.
Govind Chhetri, the assistant public prosecutor, said: “The court today examined the passports and other items of the Czechs that had been seized. The interim bail has been granted taking into consideration the age of the accused, the period of detention and the hardship regarding food habits in the jail.”
The scientist and his associate were not produced before the CJM today though they were brought to the court in the morning.
When told about the bail, Svacha said: “We are relieved. I would like to categorically state that we have not been mistreated by anyone, be it jail officials or even the inmates.”
Czech tourists granted bail
Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, July 25: Several political parties expressed concern over today’s disturbances in Darjeeling town and asked for strict administrative measures to bring the situation under control. “This type of violent incidents particularly at this critical point would be harmful to the interest of the hills as well as of the state and must be put down by apt administrative measures,” the leaders of different constituents of the Left Front said today.
However, the CPI-ML (Liberation) leader Mr Abhijit Majumder said that the state-sponsored sabotage might have instigated today’s violence in the hill town. One woman belonging to the Gorkha Jan Mukti Nari Morcha was shot dead allegedly by GNLF supporters. The house of GNLF leader Mr Subash Ghising was pelted with stones and that of another GNLF leader Mr Dipak Gurung’s was burnt by an irate mob.
Expressing serious concern over the incident Mr Jibesh Sarkar, the CPI-M state committee member said that the administration should put down such lawlessness with a heavy hand. “The situation is alarming and before it takes a turn for the worse strict measures should be taken by the administration. The CPI-M activists are also being subjected to terror tactics by the GJMM activists, yet the administration is not alive to the gravity of the problem,” the CPI-M leader said.
Terming the incident as ‘unfortunate’ Mr Ujjwal Chowdhury, the CPI Darjeeling district secretary, said that the GJMM leadership seemed to be a frustrated lot. “The administration must be on its guard to keep the cadres of the frustrated outfit under check,” the CPI leader warned.
Mr Smritish Bhattacharya, the Forward Bloc Darjeeling district secretary, said that the survival of the UPA government at the Centre might have emboldened the GJMM. “ The incident is unfortunate and this must not be allowed to snowball into major political disturbances in the hills,” Mr Bhattacharya said.
Mr Binay Chakravarty, the RSP Darjeeling district secretary held lack of administrative alertness responsible for today’s incident. “The district administration should have been on its guard to forestall such an incident,” the RSP leader commented. However, the CPI-ML (Liberation) leader Mr Abhijit Majumder said that a state-sponsored sabotage might have been behind today’s incident in the hills. “We are awaiting detailed information. Yet the possibility of sabotage cannot be ruled out,” the CPI-ML leader remarked
Darjeelingtoday 