The GJM on Monday launched an indefinite strike in northern West Bengal hills demanding the creation of a new state.
The protesters shouted slogans and threw bricks at security forces, prompting police to resort to a baton charge to disperse the crowd near Chowk Bazar.
Dividing themselves into small units, the GJM activists used the narrow lanes and by-lanes of Darjeeling to take out the rally in order to bypass the tight security on the main roads but were stopped by the police near Chowk Bazar.
Senior police officers of the district, including the newly appointed Superintendent of Police Akhilesh Chaturvedi were seen patrolling the streets, alongside counter insurgency force and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers.
“The activists became violent and resorted to stone pelting at our forces near Chowk Bazaar. But the mob has been disbursed from the place. We have to check if any of the officers got injured,” Chaturvedi said.
Meanwhile, police on Monday night arrested Gorkhaland Territorial Administration member Satish Pokhrial over the violence in the area since last Thursday.
A massive force was posted outside the GJM party office in Darjeeling’s Singmari.
The West Bengal hills have been on the boil for nearly a week over the GJM’s demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland.
The GJM has also accused the state government of “high-handedness and committing atrocities” on the people of the hills.
Besides, the party is protesting against what it calls the state government’s “attempt” to impose Bengali on the Nepali-speaking people of the region, even though Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asserted there are no such plans for the hills.
A violent clash ensued between police and GJM activists last Thursday during a protest rally, right after the state government’s cabinet meeting in Darjeeling, in which several activists and at least 50 policemen were injured.
Meanwhile, the GJM yesterday called an all-party meeting to discuss the crisis.
As the protests continued to rock the hills, the Bharatiya Janata Party tore into Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress government over the issue.
The federal ruling party accused the state government of alienating Gorkhas and forcing the community to face an identity crisis.
BJP state vice president Chandra Kumar Bose said that Gorkhas belong to India, but the state government has alienated them to such an extent that they no longer feel they belonging to this country. It is the identity crisis which has sparked the violence, Bose said.
He also criticised the Left Front, which had ruled the state for 34 years blaming it for the current situation.
Janata Dal (United) leader Pavan Varma said that violence cannot be a solution to any problem.
The hills are famous for the Darjeeling tea whose production is jealously guarded. It is also famed for its “toy train” - a 78km uphill ride from New Jalpaiguri.
But the troubles have dealt a major blow to the crucial tourism industry.
Pradip Lama, secretary of the Darjeeling Tourist Association of Travel Agents, said that worried visitors - most of them from other parts of India - are leaving and nearly 70% of bookings have been cancelled.
“Till Sunday, 7,000 tourists left Darjeeling,” Lama said.
“We had heard about the trouble and still reached the hill resort on Friday, hoping that the situation would be normal,” Priya Roy, a visitor from Bengaluru.
“We have decided to leave Darjeeling after GJM’s warning to tourists.”
Another tourist said their group’s vehicle was mobbed by slogan-shouting protesters who demanded to know their identities.
The Gorkhas have been campaigning for decades for the new state. They say Bengali-speaking outsiders have exploited their resources and imposed their culture and language.
A similar agitation in 2007 led to the granting of some administrative powers to local people.