Sikkim, Bengal spar over Gorkhaland

THE TENSION BETWEEN THE TWO STATES STARTED WHEN SIKKIM CM WROTE TO HOME MINISTER RAJNATH SINGH EXPRESSING HIS SUPPORT FOR THE DEMAND FOR NEW STATE

SILIGURI: The dispute between Mamata Banerjee government and Pawan Chamling administration over Gorkh alan dc an turn into a full blown confrontation with Sikkim police slap ping murder charges against the superintendent of police ofKa limp ong district following the death of a 34-year old in Sikkim on Friday afternoon.

Dawa Bhutia, 34, who was a resident of Kali mp ong,diedw hen a team of policemen from Ben gal opened fire at a place called Saddam near Namchi.

The tension between the two states started on June 20 when Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling wrote to Union home minister Rajnath Singh expressing his support for the new state being demanded by the Gorkh as. Bengal government promptly opposed Chamling’s stance, calling it an unwelcome interference. “We will register a case,” Pradhan said on Friday. The young man was the driver of D aw a Le pchaw how as a member of the Gork hal and Territorial Administration, the autonomous body set up to run the affairs of the hills. “An innocent man has died. If the Ben gal government has violated the law and entered a different state, we condemn it,” said Jan Andolan Party chief Harka Ba had ur Che ttri. The policemen, some of whom were in uniform and some in plain clothes, entered South district of the Himalayan to raid the spot in Maj hit ar where GorkhaJ an mu ktiM or ch a chief Bi mal Gurungw as holding a central committee meeting.

The M or chap resident, who is on the run after being slapped UA(P)A sections, managed to escape. The confrontation between the police of the two states heightened on Friday when Sikkim Police refused the team from Bengal to take away six GJM members arrested by them.