BREAKING NEWS 13 Injured in SSB Firing, SSB accused of Raping a house wife KalimNews, 19 Oct 09: 13 persons were injured when BSF jawans fired to a group of people who protested against a rape case in Jaldhaka. Of the 13 one Dipak Pradhan is seriously injured and admitted at Mal Bazar Rural Hospital. According to sources a BSF jawan Rakesh Singh was found raping Devi Tamang (25) by his husband Mangalay Tamang a resident of Stage II of Jaldhaka near a cow shed at about 9 pm yesternight. Hearing the cry of Devi and her husband local people gathered and challenged Singh who fled off his pant and his ATM card to his camp which is nearby the incident spot. Other sources divulged that the wife had an extramarital affair with the jawan and her husband found them in a compromising position. The jawan was then caught and beaten by the people gathered there who fled to his camp. After a few hours at around 11 pm in the night a crowd gathered and approached the SSB camp and demanded to handover Rakesh Singh so that he will be apprehended to the police. An altercation started between the jawans and the public. It is alleged that 4 sentry of SSB fired several rounds at random to the crowd injuring 13 of which Ranjit Pradhan has been shot thrice in the lower portion of his body. Of them Mata Tamang too is seriously injured . The injured mostly shot with splinters below the waistline are Ratan Tamang, Dilip Rai, Sanjay Sharma, Pratik Gurung, Suraj Gurung, Kushang Sherpa, Kalyan lama, Robin Rai, Yakub Thapa and Bishnu Dolma Lama and are admitted to Mal Rural Hospital , they are referred to other Hospitals. It is reported that they will be admitted at S.D.Hospital, Kalimpong tomorrow. A meeting between the public and the BSF Officials in presence of the Commanding Officer was held this afternoon and BSF agreed to handover Rakesh to the Police. According to a source Rakesh is arrested by Jaldhaka Police station and will be produced in the Kalimpong SDJM Court tomorrow. D.P.Singh D.S.P. Darjeeling, ASP Kalimpong, SDO Kalimpong visited Jaldhaka and met the public and BSF Officials for maintaining law and order. The public of the area has demanded to remove the SSB camp from there as they feel insecure with SSB in their vicinity. There are 8 SSB camps in Jaldhaka area belonging to 10th Battallion having its headquarters at Mal Bazar at Sibshu, Khumani, Naxal, Jholung, Paren, Chisang, Todey and Tangta. Tension has gripped the area, though the situation is under control. It is often alleged that SSB personnel harass the local public, threaten them and take away things they like. They often enter the villages and take cocks or hens, vegetables and pay low prices not even half of the selling price. It is also alleged they have not paid the total amount till todate to the landowners of the land bought by the SSB for their camps. SSB ‘affair’ triggers clash, 13 injured TT, Oct. 19: An alleged extra marital affair involving a jawan of the Shashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and a woman at a village near the Bhutan border last night triggered a clash between the local people and the guards, who reportedly opened fire. Thirteen people, including four guards, were injured in the violence at Jhalong, about 120km from here. Although police claimed that the border guards had only fired in the air, unconfirmed reports said at least three residents, including a woman, had been hit by bullets. Nine villagers are under treatment at Malbazar Subdivisional Hospital. Sources said three of them — Deepak Gurung, Mata Tamang and Dilip Rai, all with suspected bullet injuries — were in a serious condition and had been referred to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital but were yet to be shifted. The remaining six under treatment in Malbazar are Ratan Lama, Ranjit Pradhan, Pratik Gurung, Bishnu Lama, Swami Gurung and Sanjoy. The violence began around 9pm when the jawan, Rakesh Singh, was allegedly found in a compromising position with the woman by her husband. Chased by the irate husband, Singh fled to his outpost nearby. Soon, many residents gathered in front of the outpost, demanding that Singh be handed over to them. When the guards rejected the demand, the mob allegedly vandalised the SSB’s sentry post and other structures. In retaliation, the SSB personnel resorted to firing in the air, following which a full-fledged clash ensued. D.P. Singh, the Darjeeling superintendent of police who had gone to the spot, said nine persons, including four guards, were injured in the clash and the jawans had fired in the air. “All the injured have been admitted to the Mal subdivisional hospital.” However, the officer could not confirm if anyone had been hit by bullets. He added that the woman’s husband had lodged a complaint of rape against the jawan, who was subsequently arrested. “We spoke to the SSB and the local people. The aggrieved party should have gone to the local police station and lodged a complaint, instead of resorting to vandalism.” The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which has a strong presence in the hills, has expressed concern about the incident. Morcha spokesperson Harka Bahadur Chhetri said a team of party members had been sent from Kalimpong to the spot. “As cellphone coverage is poor, we could not gather more details. We learn that the SSB personnel, instead of guarding the border, fired at our people,” said Chhetri said. V. B. Thapa, a local unit leader of the Morcha at Jhalong, who could be contacted on his mobile phone in the evening, said: “We will socially boycott the guards and will not sell them any local produce till the accused jawan is punished.” The SSB could not be contacted. Fight between Para-Military force, Local people on rape case UNI, Siliguri, Oct 19 : Tension ran high in Jaldhaka area under Kalimpong sub-division after fights between a Para-Military force and local people over alleged rape by a jawan to a house-wife, senior police official said today. Darjeeling Superintendent of Police D P Singh said he received a report stating that the Seema Sasastra Bal (SSB) at Jaldhaka Border Out Post (BPO) opened fire in the air to disperse a violent mob, which demanded handover of the alleged rapist to them last night. Before the firing, local people and the SSB had fight for sometime in which about ten from either side were injured. Police fire on fair, five injured- Cops raid gambling den, officer stabbed Subal Chandra Barman, the inspector-in-charge of Banarhat police station, at the hospital on Monday. Picture by Biplab Basak TT, Alipurduar, Oct. 19: Five persons were injured after police opened fire on a fair in Binnaguri early this morning, when gamblers allegedly attacked the men in khaki who had raided their den. Nine policemen were wounded, among them an officer who has been badly stabbed. The fair near Banarhat, about 80km from here, had been organised for Kali Puja. At 2am, a team of policemen raided a gambling den asking the gamblers to quit their game of cards. But the police said they refused and a mob charged the law keepers. Badly outnumbered, the team of nine policemen, including two officers, came under heavy attack. The inspector-in-charge of the Banarhat police station, Subal Chandra Barman, was stabbed on the back, stomach and upper arms with a broken bottle. He was also hit on the head with a stone. Ashis Nandi, the driver of the police vehicle, was beaten up and assistant sub-inspector, Samir Majumdar, was pelted with stones. Their vehicle was also damaged. Six other policemen were injured in the stone-throwing. About half-an-hour later, a reinforcement of 40 policemen arrived and they tried to disperse the crowd by firing in the air. As that too did not have any effect on the mob that was still attacking the cornered policemen, they opened fire and conducted a lathi-charge and rescued their injured colleagues, who were taken to the Jalpaiguri district hospital, about 60km away, and admitted after 6am. The five with bullet injuries were taken to the same hospital by the local people. One of the injured, Mohammad Khodauddin Ansari, shot in the stomach, was shifted to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital in Siliguri. Badal Kharia, a resident of Binnaguri Tea Estate and was present at the fire, said: “Seema Rai was standing next to me in the fair and suddenly she fell to the ground and I heard the sound of firing. She was bleeding and we put her on to a car and took her to Jalpaiguri where we were told by doctors that she had a bullet injury.” He said “it was chaos everywhere as people ran for shelter, many of them getting injured by falling down while trying to avoid the firing”. Ananda Oraon of Binnaguri Tea Estate had been struck by a bullet below the right knee. He said from his hospital bed that everything was normal and people were making merry like every year when suddenly all hell broke loose. “We suddenly saw people running helter-skelter and heard the sound of firing. A good number of visitors had gathered at the fair. I was having a good time and I know nothing about people attacking the police. I was trying to flee and suddenly I realised that something struck me. Immediately I fell down,” he said. Rajat Bhattacharya, a surgeon of the Jalpaiguri hospital, said the condition of two policemen — Barman and Nandi — was serious. “Of the five injured by bullets, one has been referred to the medical college,” the doctor said. Kundan Lal Tamta, the inspector-general of police, north Bengal, along with Anand Kumar, the Jalpaiguri police superintendent, visited the fair grounds this morning. “The police had to fire about 25 rounds to disperse the crowd that had attacked the nine policemen who had raided the gambling den. Three of them, including the inspector-in-charge of Banarhat police station have been seriously injured. Though no one has been arrested yet, we are investigating the incident. Five locals have been injured, but the situation is under control now,” Tamta said. Morcha links tax to talks- Governor meets hill delegation

The Morcha delegation with the governor in Darjeeling on Sunday. (Suman Tamang) TT, Kalimpong, Oct. 18: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today told the governor that it was ready to resume paying taxes, provided the outcome of the fourth round of tripartite talks slated for December 21 is “positive”. The assurance to Gopalkrishna Gandhi was given by a 20-member Morcha delegation headed by its secretary Roshan Giri during their meeting in Darjeeling in response to the governor’s plea to lift the ban on payment of taxes. “We told him that we will convey his request to our president and also told him that we are willing to reconsider the lifting of ban, depending on the positive outcome of the December talks,” Morcha spokesperson Harka Bahadur Chhetri said. The people of the hills have not been paying their taxes and telephone and electricity bills for close to two years following the ban imposed by the hill party as part of its non-cooperation movement for Gorkhaland. Chhetri said the governor reasoned that the running of the defence establishments and payment of government employees’ salaries were funded by tax-payers’ money and non-payment of taxes as a tool of agitation was a “wrong instrument” in the hands of the people. “He asked us to visualise a situation, say in 2019, when people use the same weapon against whatever nature of establishment existing then, and imagine the consequences,” Chettri added. The Morcha team urged the governor to take up the demand for Gorkhaland with the Centre. “We told him that the hills are plagued with many unresolved issues, but instead of solving them, the state only adds to the problem. That is the reason why we want the Centre to grant us a separate state because we are capable of taking care of our problems,” the spokesperson said. On the recent visit of the fact-finding central team to the hills, the Morcha requested Gandhi to impress upon the Centre to send a similar team to the Dooars. “It was unfortunate that the team only surveyed the hills and did not go to the Dooars, which is even worse off,” Chhetri said. Later, a 15-member Morcha delegation from the Dooars briefed the governor about the situation in the region. GJMM’s appeal to Gandhi SNS, KURSEONG, 18 OCT: A Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha delegation called on the West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi at the Governor’s House in Darjeeling today appealing to him to convey the statehood aspirations of the Hill populace to the Centre. Mr Gandhi has been in the Hills since 9 October. The delegation comprised of the party general secretary, Mr Roshan Giri, the party media secretary, Dr Harka Bahadur Chettri, a senior leader Mr Amar Lama and members of the women’s wing, Mrs Asha Gurung and others. Talking to the reporters after the meeting, Mrs Gurung said that her party would start paying taxes to the government if the proposed tripartite dialogue slated on 21 December thawed the continuing political deadlock. “We keep withholding the payment as part of the non-cooperation movement against the state government. But once the stalemate shows signs of being resolved to the collective satisfaction of the community we would resume paying taxes in accordance with the existing rules,” she said. Governor Gandhi is reported to have urged the GJMM leadership to withdraw the part of the agitation related to non-payment of taxes and electricity dues. Briefing about the meeting the GJMM spokesperson, Mr Harka Bahadur Chettri said that the delegation had appealed to the state Governor to use his stature to impress upon the Centre of the imperatives of carving out a separate state for the Indian Gorkhas. “We tried to convince him that any mid way arrangement like a revamped Hill Council would not meet the collective aspirations of the common people in the hills,” Dr Chettri said. Meanwhile, a GJMM delegation from the Dooars region including Mr Rajen Lohar, Rimesh Tigga and Samuel Gurung met the state Governor separately today. However, it is not known what has transpired at the meeting. Mamata to address rally on 29 Oct SNS, SILIGURI, 18 OCT: To strengthen party organisation in Siliguri, following the political fiasco with regards to the municipal board formation in Siliguri, Union railway minister and Trinamul Congress chief, Miss Mamata Banerjee, is all set to address a political rally here on 29 October, for the second time within a month. Miss Banerjee would attend a mass convention at the Siliguri Indoor Stadium the same day, informed the Trinamul Darjeeling district president, Mr Gautam Deb today. The railway minister is also scheduled to lay the foundation stone for the much-hyped project that would connect Sevoke in the hills in West Bengal with Rangpo in Sikkim on 30 October. The project, which would connect Sikkim for the first time with railway tracks, would cost an estimated Rs 1,013 crore. Miss Banerjee was earlier scheduled to introduce the project on 11 October. But, the programme was cancelled and rescheduled for 30 October. During her previous visit to Siliguri spanning 4 and 5 October, Miss Banerjee promised to shower the long neglected region with a plethora of new rail projects. According to the party sources, she might campaign for the party candidate at the Rajgunj Assembly by-election slated on 7 November. “But the programmes have not yet been settled. Everything would depend on the availability of time given the busy schedule of the railway minister,” said Mr Deb. He further said that the mass convention slated on 29 October would involve people's participation through direct interaction with the Union minister. Dent in Kalchini votes TT, Alipurduar, Oct. 18: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha will back an Independent chosen by the party for the Kalchini Assembly by-election, a decision which is likely to cut into the RSP and Congress vote banks. The Morcha decision was taken in a meeting of the Kalchini Jaigaon Anchalik Committee of the party at Jaigaon on Friday. In the parliamentary election in May, the Morcha had supported the BJP, which got the highest number of votes in the Kalchini Assembly segment. Morcha bete noire, the All India Adivasi Vikas Parishad, too, will back an Independent in Kalchini. So long the Congress and the RSP, whose Manohar Tirkey is the MP of Alipurduar, were the two major parties in Kalchini, enjoying the support of the tribals and the Gorkhas. With the hill party and the Dooars outfit deciding to back Independents now, chances are that the RSP and the Congress will lose a chunk of voters. Ashoke Lama, the convener of Eastern Dooars Committee of the Morcha, said: “We have decided to back an Independent chosen by us. Today a delegation from Kalchini is going to Darjeeling to finalise the name.” Biswaranjan Sarkar, the president of the Jalpaiguri district committee of the Congress, said his party was not worried about the Morcha decision. “People want change and the wind is blowing in favour of the Congress. This has been reflected in many of the recent election results. We (Congress and ally Trinamul Congress) will win both the seats.” Kalchini and Rajgunj were held by the RSP and the CPM (Mahendra Roy) till both the MLAs became MPs, necessitating the bypolls. Trinamul is contesting in Rajgunj. A firework display on Diwali in Kalimpong on Saturday. Picture by Chinlop Fudong Lepcha