Grenade attack on hill police - Civic volunteer killed in Kalimpong

TT, Calcutta, Aug. 19: A civic police volunteer was killed and two policemen were injured in a grenade attack on Kalimpong police station tonight, less than 24 hours after a blast in the heart of Darjeeling town.

The attacks using explosives came soon after an announcement by a platform of political and apolitical organisations driving the Gorkhaland agitation that it was willing to talk to the state government. The leadership did not appear to lay stress on the agenda.

Police have started a terror case against senior Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leaders, including its president Bimal Gurung, for last night's blast in Darjeeling town.

Gurung, who had also expressed his willingness to hold talks with the state government but wants a one-point agenda of statehood, issued a media release distancing the Morcha from the blast and seeking an impartial probe.

Tonight, well past 10pm, hand grenades were thrown at the Kalimpong police station. S.N. Gupta, the additional director-general of police, North Bengal, confirmed the attack and said: "We are taking necessary steps to find the attackers."

In the eighties, when a violent movement for Gorkhaland was led by Subash Ghisingh, Kalimpong police station was the first police station to be attacked. A constable had died then.

Around 11pm on Saturday, a forest bungalow near Kalimpong town was set on fire.

Sources in Siliguri metropolitan police said additional police had been deployed at all entry points to Siliguri from the hills after the attacks.

Around Friday midnight, a bomb had gone off barely 200 metres from Darjeeling Sadar police station, the splinters flying 40 feet up in the air and shooting across a radius of 40 metres, but causing no casualties.

Police sources said the improvised device had been planted at the local motor stand, which is hemmed in by the Old Super Market and the Old Barrack Market besides some houses. Splinters pierced the iron shutters of more than 20 shops and smashed most of the windowpanes in the four-storey Old Super Market.

A man who lives within 100 metres of the site spoke of a deafening sound at midnight. "Clocks and utensils fell off the wall."

The police have booked Bimal Gurung, his close aide Pravin Subba and Morcha youth wing chief Prakash Gurung under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act as well as sections of the penal code and state laws relating to public order and public property.

"Booking them under UAPA provisions, which can bring a life term, means the state administration is trying to portray them as terrorists," a source at Nabanna said.

"This implies the administration is in no mood to show the Morcha leadership any leniency even after Gurung's expression of willingness to start a dialogue with the state government."

Gurung's media release -some sources said he was rattled after learning of the charges - blamed the blast on a conspiracy to defame the Gorkhaland movement.

It wondered how a blast could take place "only around 200 metres from Darjeeling Sadar police station and around 100 metres from the office of the deputy superintendent of police", at a time Darjeeling had been "turned into a garrison".

Darjeeling superintendent of police Akhilesh Chaturvedi claimed that "technical inputs and other information" had turned the needle of suspicion towards Gurung and his aides.
KalimNews: It is reported that Rakesh Raut, a civic police was heavily injured and died on the way to hospital while Lhendup Bhutia injured in his chest was referred to NBMCH Siliguri. Miscreants also torched a social forestry bunglow in Kalimpong..