Anti-communal posters do the rounds at Sikkim

SNS, Gangtok, 24 July 2013: Amid apprehensions about a likely breach in the inter-ethnic harmony in Sikkim in the wake of the controversial writ petition filed by the Association of Old Settlers, inflammatory posters have surfaced in several localities across East and West Sikkim today. 

Police have registered two separate cases at Singtam and Kaluk police stations in East and West districts respectively and have started investigations. Posters allegedly inciting three ethnic Sikkimese communities ~ Lepchas, Bhutias and Nepalis ~ against the Old Settlers were pasted on walls and on trees at various places in East district’s Samdong and Yuksom, Kaluk, Dentam as well as at West District headquarter in Gayzing early this morning. 

Police soon removed the posters. A total of six posters and pamphlets are reported to have been seized from Khamdong village. 

The posters written in Nepali read: ‘Indian Nepalese quit India’, ‘Bhutia- Lepcha- Nepali Beware’. Another poster reportedly pasted by an unknown organisation, Bihari Sangh, read, ‘Bhutia go to Bhutan, Lepchas have no place, Nepalis go back to Nepal’. 

Sikkim Police DIG (Range), M S Tuli, said cases have been registered against some unknown people at Singtam and Kaluk police stations under Defacement of Public Property Act. 

West District Police Superintendent, D B Giri, said investigations have been initiated in connection with the inflammatory posters. Meanwhile, the Sikkim People’s Forum has warned the Association of Old Settlers of Sikkim not to test its patience. 

The forum spokesperson, Mr Jagdish Sharma, said the body’s meeting held at Limboo Bhawan last Tuesday has discussed the steps to be taken to create awareness about the Sikkimese being tagged as ‘foreigners’ in the petition filed at the Supreme Court. The forum has called a meeting on 28 July.