Many injured in north Bengal clash

At least eight people were injured in clashes between pro and anti bandh supporters at Jaigaon in Jalpaiguri district on Sunday, police said.

However, an unofficial report claimed a 40-year-old businessman was killed in the violence at Jaigaon, about 100 km from here bordering Bhutan.

The clashes happened when some supporters of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) allegedly defied the 48-hour bandh called by Amar Bangla O Bangla Bhasha Banchao Committee (ABOBBBC), began Sunday morning.

The ABOBBBC is opposing division of West Bengal while the GJM is demanding separate statehood in the hills of Darjeeling, Terai and Dooars for the Gorkhas, who are ethnic Nepalese.

Additional superintendent of police Anup Jaiswal said five persons were injured, but denied any information about the death.

But intelligence sources gathered information saying death of a person in the clashes.

The injured were shifted to Siliguri and Jalpaiguri hospital.

After four days of shutdown in the hills, the ABOBBBC’s sponsored 48-hour bandh affected the plains of Darjeeling and parts of Jalpaiguri district. The band was an attempt to stop vehicles carrying essentials to the hills.

The GJM after a break on Sunday and Monday would resume another eight-day bandh of the propsoed 27-day shutdown in the hills to force the Centre to start dialogue for separate statehood demand.

GJM general secretary Roshan Giri alleged the Bhasha Committee was posturing as an apolitical organisation when it was actually not.

He said: ?We will write to the Centre seeking a ban on the organisation, which is trying to impose an economic blockade on the hills.”

?The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and especially Asok Bhattacharya (the MLA of CPI-M from Siliguri) is using fringe organisations like the Bhasha Banchao Committee for political gains.?

The Trinamool Congress also alleged that the CPI-M was using the new outift for vested politcal gains.