Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, Sept. 21: The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Darjeeling Police today launched a joint operation against the newly formed Gorkha National Liberation Army (GNLA), a wing of the United Gorkha Revolutionary Front (UGRF), in the jungles and remote villages of Kalimpong.
Confirming the development, Darjeeling SP Mr Rajesh Subarno said: “A joint operation has been launched against the GNLA and the UGRF activists by police and CRPF jawans today.”
The move comes in the wake of reports that the UGRF had formed its own army in the name of GNLA under the leadership of Ajay Dahal. The GNLA, formed as a part of the UGRF’s proposed armed struggle for the creation of Gorkhaland, had recently splashed some posters in Kalimpong town, exhorting the people of the Hills to join them.
With the bloody movement for Gorkhaland by the Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) in the eighties still fresh, the Darjeeling district administration does not want to give any room to the UGRF to launch another armed rebellion in the Hills. Hence, police and the CRPF today launched a joint operation against the GNLA.
It was learnt that two companies of CRPF left for Kalimpong from Siliguri early this morning to help the police in their operation against the GNLA and the UGRF. Intelligence sources said nearly 70 armed men had been active in the jungles of Kalimpong. Most of them are unemployed youths from the Hills, having criminal records against them.
Sources said the UGRF had been imparting arms training to its activists at Suruk village near Algarah in Kalimpong. Last Saturday, Kalimpong Police arrested an UGRF activist, Asish Rai (33), from Suruk Busty in Kalimpong subdivision and seized an improvised gun and some posters from him. Police said another UGRF activist, Ram Rai, was arrested from the same village last night.