Subash Ghisingh’s body reaches Darjeeling, cremation Sunday

Supporters gather to pay their respect to Subhash Ghisingh at Bagdogra airport in Siliguri. (Source: PTI)

ENS, Kolkata, 30 January 2015:Thousands of Gorkhas paid a tearful tribute to their departed leader Subash Ghisingh, as his body was taken to Darjeeling from New Delhi on Friday. The founder of Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) and former chairman of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, who died in a hospital in New Delhi on Thursday, will be cremated at his native Manju village in Darjeeling’s Mirik sub-division on Sunday.

Ghisingh’s body was taken to Bagdogra airport on Friday afternoon where the West Bengal Police gave a gun salute to the departed leader. He was later taken in a long motorcade to his Zakir Hussein Road residence in Darjeeling with intermittent stops at Sukna, Kurseong, Sonada and Ghoom. Ghisingh’s son Mohan Ghisingh accompanied the body along with other relatives. North Bengal Development Minister Gautam Deb and Darjeeling Trinamool Congress leader Binny Sharma were present at the airport to pay their respects to Ghisingh.

Gorkhas lined up the roads leading to the hills to pay tribute to a leader who had captured their imagination for more than two decades. The motorcade procession — heavily guarded by the police — started from Bagdogra around 2 pm and reached Jalapahar in Darjeeling around 7.30 pm.

This is the residence Ghisingh was forced to leave when his comrade-in- arms, Bimal Gurung, revolted against him — after having formed the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) — and took over the reins of the hills.

On Thursday, GJM leaders in Delhi were reportedly not allowed to see him after his death by GNLF members. On Friday, Bimal Gurung was not present in Darjeeling. Sources said he was away in Kalimpong.

N N Subbah, a GNLF leader close to Ghisingh, said the body will be kept at his Jalapahar house on Saturday for locals to pay their last respects. It will then be taken to his native village of Manju in Mirik on Sunday for cremation.