1 die, 35 injured in Darjeeling clashes
B’desh landslides kill 4
DARJEELING, India, June 18, (AFP): A man has been killed and dozens of police injured in clashes between Indian police and protesters in Darjeeling, an official said Sunday, as unrest worsens in the hill resort at the height of the tourist season.
Nearly 50 people, mostly police, have been injured in riots and arson attacks that have gripped the usually bustling area for more than a week and caused thousands of mostly Indian tourists to pack their bags and flee.
As the violence escalated sharply on Saturday, a man died in clashes as protesters torched cars and set upon police with knives, who responded with tear gas and baton charges.
“A man was killed and at least 35 policemen were injured yesterday. Some of them were stabbed in the back,” the director general of West Bengal state police, Anuj Sharma, told AFP.
One officer who intervened in an arson attack was “seriously wounded after protesters slashed his throat”, Sharma said.
The dead man appeared to have been shot but the circumstances were still unclear, Sharma added. Police have denied using live ammunition. The upswing in violence began when police raided the homes and offices of members of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), a separatist movement that has long called for a new state of “Gorkhaland” to be carved out of West Bengal.
The group has accused police of shooting dead three of its members in Saturday’s clashes — a claim which police have strongly denied.
“Three of our comrades were killed and five were critically injured in police firing yesterday,” GJM’s general secretary Roshan Giri told AFP.
Landslides hit Bangladesh, kill 4:
Fresh landslides killed four people and sent hundreds fleeing in Bangladesh on Sunday, police said, just days after the worst mudslides on record left more than 150 dead amid a heavy monsoon.
Two children were buried in their sleep while two other victims were killed in a separate incident when their home was struck by an avalanche of mud and rock.
The twin tragedies followed renewed rainfall in Bangladesh’s hill regions on Saturday, the scene of its worst landslides in living memory that last week killed 158 and destroyed roads and critical infrastructure.
Fearing further deadly landslides amid a fresh deluge, authorities in Khagrachhari hill district evacuated hundreds of civilians from disaster-prone areas, said district police chief Ali Ahmad Khan.
It was too late for two siblings, aged eight and 13, who were killed early Sunday in the district’s Ramgarh town when their home was struck by a wave of mud.
Lanka arrests monk, policeman:
Sri Lankan authorities on Sunday arrested a police officer and a Buddhist monk accused of leading an arson attack against a mosque and a Muslim business amid a wave of religious violence.
Deputy Inspector-General Priyantha Jayakody said the policeman, a monk and two others were caught on camera torching the buildings in Panadura just outside the capital Colombo.
“They were taken after analysing CCTV footage which showed them setting fire to a mosque and a Muslim-owned book shop at Panadura last month,” Jayakody told reporters in Colombo.
The arrested policeman, a constable stationed at Colombo, was accused of stoking racial and religious tensions, Jayakody added, describing the arrests as a “breakthrough” in efforts to curb the outbreak of violence.
Police say the four accused are close associates of Ga-lagodaatte Gnanasara, a Buddhist extremist who heads a group of radicals blamed for a slew of arson attacks against Muslim businesses, cemeteries and mosques.