Darjeeling, March 23: The ABGL office here was ransacked and the furniture burnt by a group of people this afternoon.
The office of Madan Tamang’s party at Ladenla Road had been targeted twice before and like in the past, the ABGL accused the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha of today’s vandalism also.
Only two ABGL members, Mohan Sharma and Binod Gurung, were present when a group of people barged into the office and asked them to move out around 2.30pm. The mob smashed the tables and chairs in the office and brought out some furniture on the road and set them on fire.
The office is on the first floor of a three-storied building. Business establishments situated on the ground floor downed shutters when the vandalism took place.
Tamang alleged that the Morcha was behind the attack. “What else can these people (Morcha) do? I have been told that Puran Thami (general secretary of the Morcha’s town committee) and Kismat Chhetri (president of the student wing) assembled the hoodlums near the Darjeeling municipality (before the attack). I was in the office till 40 minutes before the attack. The office was targeted after I had left.”
The ABGL supporters took out a rally here on Sunday and burnt the copies of a document the Morcha had sent to the Centre, mooting an interim autonomous body in the hills. Tamang said at the rally that the Morcha was trying to hoodwink the people by settling for a special status under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution on the pretext of an interim set-up.
Tamang did not spare even the state government for the attack. “Buddhadeb Bhattacharya must understand that he cannot force a settlement on the people by purchasing some leaders from the hills. We will continue to oppose any arrangement within Bengal tooth and nail and are ready to sacrifice everything.”
Thami has denied any involvement in the attack. “At the moment, I am at Relling, near Bijanbari (about 50km from Darjeeling) to attend a party meeting. I had no role in the incident and Madan Tamang can verify my presence at Relling by contacting the local police station if he wants to,” said Thami.
Roshan Giri, general secretary of the Morcha who claimed he was with Thami at Relling, said: “Our party had nothing to do with the incident. It is a staged incident as the sole aim of the ABGL is to create a law and order situation and bring in security forces to derail our movement.”
An ABGL supporter had filed an FIR with Darjeeling Sadar police on Sunday, accusing Thami of assaulting him while returning from the procession.
On January 1, 2009, the ABGL office was ransacked and the furniture burnt at Ladenla Road following the death of Subodh Pradhan, a Morcha leader at Rohini.
The office was again attacked on February 15, 2009, two days after Tamang had criticised the Morcha’s strategy in the plains. The Morcha had denied involvement in both the incidents.
Tamang said an FIR would be filed with on today’s incident.
Source: The Telegraph
0 comments:
Post a Comment