The Hindu : Front Page : GJM bandh to be suspended for a day

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Monday, Jul 27, 2009
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GJM bandh to be suspended for a day

Marcus Dam

KOLKATA: People in the Darjeeling hills of West Bengal will on Monday get a reprieve from the indefinite bandh called by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha , which observes the day as “Martyrs’ Day” in memory of those killed in the 1980s during the agitation for a separate State.

The victims include those who died in police firing at Kalimpong on the day in 1986. The Gorkha National Liberation Front — now an adversary of the GJM — was spearheading the Statehood agitation then. A large section of its leadership broke away from the GNLF to form the GJM in October 2007.

The GNLF had also been observing July 27 as Martyrs’ Day during the years it was the principal political force in the Darjeeling hills.

“The decision to suspend the bandh for a day has been taken in view of the Martyrs’ Day. Shops and banks will remain open, though government offices will stay closed. Vehicles will be allowed to ply the roads,” GJM general secretary Roshan Giri told The Hindu over telephone from Darjeeling on Sunday.

The bandh — called by the GJM in support of the Statehood demand — that entered its 14th day would resume on Tuesday, Mr. Giri said.

Though vehicles were allowed to ply in the three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, and Kurseong on Saturday, some anti-GJM groups in the plains of north Bengal blocked highways in the foothills at two places.

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