Shoot-out between police and separatists in famed Indian tea region Darjeeling leaves officer dead
The gunfight followed a predawn raid on a hideout used by members of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha, a regional party agitating for their own state
One police officer was killed and four others injured on Friday in a gunfight with suspected separatists in Darjeeling, the famous tea growing region of eastern India that has been roiled by protests in recent months.
Police said the shoot-out followed a predawn raid on a forest hideout used by members of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), a regional party agitating for a separate state for the Gurkha ethnic minority.
They were searching for the head of the party Bimal Gurung, who has been on the run since government prosecutors brought terrorism charges against him over a 104-day protest that crippled the region and left nearly a dozen people dead.
“A sub-inspector of the state police died and four were injured in cross-firing between the police and Gorkha Janamukti Morcha supporters loyal to Bimal Gurung,” said Anuj Sharma, additional director general of police for the eastern state of West Bengal.
Tensions flared in the picturesque hill station of Darjeeling in West Bengal in June when the state government announced it was making the Bengali language mandatory in state schools.