The Telegraph

Siliguri, March 14: The house of the GNLF’s Terai branch convener was ransacked and his vehicle damaged allegedly by Gorkha Janmukti Morcha supporters today. Rajen Mukhia, however, has termed the attack as an “attempt on my life”.

The attack took place three days after Mukhia had held a media conference here on Wednesday with a rope with noose iterating his promise that he would hang himself if the Morcha could keep its pledge of achieving the separate state. Morcha chief Bimal Gurung had set March 10, 2010 as the deadline to achieve Gorkhaland.

On September 7, 2008, Mukhia’s Maruti car was also set on fire allegedly by Morcha supporters in front of his home. His house at Panighata in Kurseong subdivision, 40km from here, was also attacked about seven months ago.
A flower pot damaged in the attack. (Kundan Yolmo)

Mukhia was at his two-storied concrete house with some local party leaders and family members, when a group of 40 to 50 people organised the attack around 11.30 this morning. “Some minor repair was going on in my house and I was paying the labourers when the group attacked,” Mukhia said. “They started throwing stones at the house and tried to get hold of me. Somehow, I managed to escape but the glass windowpanes of my house were shattered and furniture damaged in the raid. The attackers also damaged my Maruti Gypsy. It was an attempt on my life.”

The GNLF leader alleged that the attackers, brandishing rods and sticks, had abused him. “They were repeatedly saying Bimal Gurung (the Morcha chief) had instructed them to finish me and I should be killed to completely wipe off the GNLF from the hills,” Mukhia said.

He said he was ready to die if the the Morcha could achieve Gorkhaland for the hill people after his death. “But otherwise, I am not among those who will retreat in fear.”

“The feeling of insecurity and the erosion of support base are prompting the Morcha to organise attacks on the GNLF leaders as people have been listening to us and have well understood that the so-called leaders (of the Morcha) are more interested in filling their coffers than striving for Gorkhaland,” the GNLF leader said. “Finding no other option now, they (Morcha supporters) have resorted to violence to intimidate people.”

As the attackers swarmed in Mukhia’s house, officers from Panighata police outpost arrived at the spot, half-a-kilometre away, and brought the situation under control. Seeing the police, the mob fled.

“We have filed a complaint with the police and want them to catch the culprits or else we will launch a movement against them (the law enforcers). The attackers came from Panighata and Chenga,” Mukhia said.

Tikaram Pradhan, a Morcha leader in Panighata, has denied the involvement of his party supporters in the attack. “The people in general are frustrated to see the highhandedness of Mukhia and his cohorts; so, they protested today,” he said. “The GNLF is trying to implicate us.”

The police said patrolling at Panighata had been intensified to maintain law and order. “We have started raids to arrest the accused,” an officer said.

On February 18, a primary English medium school at Ging in Darjeeling set up by a GNLF leader was torched. Kurseong MLA Shanta Chhetri’s house was also set on fire the same day. On January 24, the houses of two former GNLF leaders were vandalised at Haridashatta by unidentified people, a day after three leaders of the party, including Mukhia, were attacked in Mirik.

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