CM transfers Darjeeling top cop, Kabir named DIG

A day after Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) Yuva Morcha chief Prakash Gurung said that they would fast till death if justice is delayed, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a high-level meeting at Nabanna, the state Secretariat, on Tuesday. In a late night reshuffle, the CM ordered major administrative shake-up, appointing Humayun Kabir as the new DIG, Darjeeling Range to look after both Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts where the GJM is spearheading an agitation for a separate state of Gorkhaland.

The order indicates admonition for the earlier police officers who had failed to maintain law and order in the Hills, leaving it to burn and boil. With an indefinite bandh imposed by the GJM still on, students, tourists and locals have been left high and dry.

The police report submitted on Tuesday mentioned that the agitators are planning to continue with the movement for Gorkhaland in a more democratic way, and are also making attempts to stockpile huge arms and ammunition at Gorubathan.

Attended by senior officers including Chief Secretary Basudeb Banerjee, Home Secretary Malay De and Director General of Police Surajit Kar Purakayastha, the officers, in the meeting, were asked to keep a close vigil in the Hills.

Sources further informed that the police had also mentioned in the report that they are in search of one Anik Rai, the self-styled area commander of Gorkha Liberation Army (GLA) and had been spearheading the movement at present. The police report, however, had reportedly mentioned that the GLA founder Ajay Daval had been provided a hideout in a neighbouring country.

The police have also mentioned about one particular place of the neighbouring country from where illegal supply of firearms cannot be ruled out. The police had been keeping a close watch at Sukuiapokri area, situated close to the eastern fringe of the neighbouring nation. The police had also suspected some alternative routes through which ration was getting supplied to the people of the Hills as there is no dearth of food since tension broke out 15 days before.

The report, however, claimed that the police would not take an offensive stance till the movement remained peaceful and added that central para-military forces had been providing all the necessary support to maintain law and order.

IPS officer Jawed Shamim, who was sent to Darjeeling along with two other senior officers Siddh Nath Gupta and Ajay Nand, went to Nabanna on Tuesday to submit the report.