Renewed stir not diktat, but free will: Bimal

HM, Darjeeling, Aug 23: The indefinite agitation by the GJM in Darjeeling, which is demanding Gorkhaland, continued for the third day today with the party stressing that no diktat was issued to the people and it was not a bandh but an expression of free will.

"The GJM leadership affirms its full respect for the recent observations of the Calcutta High Court on the developments in the Darjeeling hills and asserts that there is no diktat issued for the people," GJM President Bimal Gurung said in a Facebook post.

"The agitation should not be construed as a bandh but is only an expression of the free will of the people," he said. He said "There will be no force, intimidation or coercion of any sort." "This comes in the contrary to the reports in a section of the media that suggest otherwise," he said.

Gurung said that the agitation named ' Ghar Bahira Janta Program' "was a voluntarily democratic and peaceful rally" by the Gorkhaland Joint Action Committee, a platform which was carrying forward the movement for Gorkhaland. "

The GJM leadership clarifies that the ongoing agitation has been intensified further as the "Ghar Bahira Janta" continues indefinitely till the leaders are released and their cases are withdrawn," Gurung said. "

The GJM supporters will continue to exercise their freedom of expression, speech and their right to assemble peacefully without arms to press for their demand for Gorkhaland with the "Ghar Bhaira Janta" program," he said. The high court had on August 14 expressed displeasure over the GJM's violation of its order of August 7 which had held the indefinite bandh in Darjeeling as illegal.

Gurung said that the agitation was to protest the continuing arrest of GJM leaders and Gorkhaland supporters. Meanwhile GJM and CPRM held rallies in Darjeeling town in which leaders of both the parties stated that achieving Gorkhaland would be difficult but not impossible. They stressed on the unity of all proGorkhaland forces.

3 GJM supporters were arrested from the Pokhriabong area along with an improvised gun and Khukuris in connection with the torching of the police outpost at Pokhriabong on August 22. “Arun Diyali, Bhaskar Mukhia and Jiten Sotang has been sent to 4 days of police remand” stated Kunal Agarwal, Superintendent of Police, Darjeeling.

(Source & Courtesy: http://www.himalayanmirror.net/upload/13773257921.pdf)