 "Darjeeling unrest: GJM chief Bimal Gurung and 43 others resign from GTA, demand CBI probe into police firing")
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) chief Bimal Gurung on Friday stepped down as the chief executive of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). Gurung also demanded a CBI inquiry into alleged incidents of police firing on GJM supporters over the last week.
#Darjeeling GJM Chief Bimal Gurung resigns from the post of chief executive of GTA, demands CBI inquiry into police firing on GJM supporters
— ANI (@ANI) June 23, 2017
Speaking to Firstpost on Friday, GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said, “In the indiscriminate firing on protesters, the troops killed three of our supporters. And then the West Bengal Police levelled police complaints against the GJM, which just does not make sense, and goes to show that the administration is not taking such incidents seriously.” The West Bengal government on Thursday offered talks to defuse the crisis in the restive region, where a case of murder was filed against Bimal Gurung and his wife for the death of a man during last week’s clashes. While putting in his papers as the chief executive on Friday, Gurung also said that the indefinite strike for a separate Gorkhaland state will continue, adding that the all-party meeting that was scheduled to happen on Thursday has now been postponed to 29 June.
Indefinite strike to continue,all-party meeting postponed to 29 June;will burn GTA agreement on 27 June: Bimal Gurung, GJM chief #Darjeeling pic.twitter.com/Tl0J1Tffip
— ANI (@ANI) June 23, 2017
Earlier, all elected representatives of GJM who were part of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration resigned from the agreement in a bid to step up their stir for a separate state in the Darjeeling hills. “All 44 of us, including me and Bimal Gurung, have decided to resign from the GTA today. We are doing this in order to cripple the GTA, because it was taking us nowhere,” Giri told Firstpost. GJM leaders’ decision to quit from the GTA came three days after the last all-party meeting. In the 20 June meeting, all the 14 influential political parties and public organisations of the hills had unanimously declared their support to the longstanding demand for a separate Gorkhaland state in northern West Bengal. “We hope to arrive at a resolution in the next all-party meeting. There is no question of sitting down with the Trinamool Congress leaders, as they are all opposed to our needs and demands. We aim to sit with the Central government and come up with a solution,” Giri said. The GJM-sponsored indefinite shutdown, which has paralysed normal life in the hills, entered its ninth day on Friday.
