Darjeeling unrest: Masked men set off IED blast at Kalimpong; police say no casualties reported

Darjeeling (West Bengal): Masked men set off an improvised explosive device (IED) blast at Kalimpong early on Saturday destroying a truck carrying food materials, but no one was injured in the incident, police said. [caption id=“attachment_3901597” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] Unidentified men stopped the truck, beat up the driver and the helper, and asked them to leave the vehicle. They then looted the food materials from it. Police said an IED was then planted underneath the truck, and a blast was triggered. “There are no reports of any casualty in the explosion. We are looking for the miscreants,” a senior police official in Kalimpong said. This a fourth such incident in eight days. The Darjeeling hills are in the midst of an indefinite shutdown which entered its 73rd day on Saturday in demand of a separate Gorkhaland state. Saturday’s explosion comes a day after a low intensity blast was set off by unidentified people at Teesta Bazar area on Friday morning. On Thursday, two blasts occured in the hills. Twin blasts rocked Darjeeling hills on 19 August in which one civic police volunteer was killed and two other people were injured. The 19 August blasts were the first such incident since the indefinite shutdown for Gorkhaland state began on 15 June. Bimal Gurung, the chief of Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), which is spearheading the agitation, was booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) in connection with the 19 August blasts.