Protests keep Darjeeling on the boil for 10th day

Protesters demanding a separate Gorkhaland state continued to march through the streets here even as the indefinite shutdown called by the GJM in the Darjeeling hills entered its tenth day on Saturday.

The "blackout of news", which the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) and other local parties protested, continued unabated for the seventh day running with local news channels unavailable in certain parts of the hills.

On Friday, 43 GJM leaders resigned en masse from the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), with GJM chief Bimal Gurung saying that there would be no fresh GTA elections this time and vowing to disrupt the process, if initiated.

Gurung, who had been in hiding since a police raid at his residence in Darjeeling's Patlebas locality on June 15, had re-surfaced on Friday and asserted that the shutdown in the hills would continue indefinitely.

Thousands of students studying in boarding schools here were evacuated on Friday after the GJM offered a 12-hour window, till 6 p.m., to allow them to leave the hills safely.