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SILIGURI, NOV 26 (PTI)

The indefinite bandh called in the Darjeeling hills by the GNLF, which entered the fourth day today, was relaxed for six hours from 10:00 am to allow the people to buy food and essential commodities.

The people of the three hill subdivisions of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong who have faced week-long and 10-days bandhs in the past since the eighties, have no idea when the shutdown, which has been called to demand the arrest of Gorkha Janamukti Morcha president Bimal Gurung would end, reports from the hills said.

Gurung’s arrest and that of twenty others have been demanded by the GNLF led by Subhas Ghising after a former party councillor K B Gurung was stabbled on November 23 during a gherao of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council headquarters, Lalkuthi, by supporters of the Morcha.

In the past bandhs of long duration have been called by the GNLF to demand a separate state of Gorkhaland. Ghising has now dropped this demand for Sixth Schedule status for the three subdivisions administered by the DGHC.

Gurung, who was a former close aide of Ghising before parting with him and launching the GJM, has opposed Sixth Schedule status and in turn has revived the demand for Gorkhaland.