People's Democracy

SUBHASH Ghising, chief of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council, was shot and wounded while travelling in a motorcade up the circuitous Pankhabari Road to the hill station on February 11 evening. In an armed assault organised allegedly by the Gorkha Liberation Organisation, a splinter group of the GNLF, Ghising received fragments of a grenade burst while two of his police escorts were killed in the exchange of gunshots that followed. Several police personnel were injured, some of them critically. At least one of the assailants also died. An AK-47 semi-automatic rifle and a number of bullets were found on the site of the attack.

The GLO has been engaged in extremist activities in the hill region of Bengal and it enjoys the patronage of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Muivah group), a hardcore militant outfit.

Condemning the attack on Ghising, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya said no effort would be spared to bring the guilty to book as soon as possible. Senior police officials rushed to Darjeeling with a large force.

Bhattacharya later said that, in a display of crass opportunism, several political parties have been providing patronage and encouragement to extremist groups to run riot in the state. The CPI(M)’s Darjeeling district secretary, Sandopal Lepcha, told INN that demonstrations and rallies were held in Darjeeling throughout Sunday, February 11, to condemn the attack of Ghising.

Ghising appeared stable and out of danger when medical reports last came from Siliguri where he was admitted to a nursing home with neurological trauma management facilities.