Amid the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha sponsored indefinite shutdown in the northern West Bengal hills, police on Thursday raided GJM chief Bimal Gurung's house in Patlebas in Darjeeling district and seized a large cache of arms.
"A raid is going on in Bimal Gurung's house since morning. Several arms have been already recovered," Akhilesh Kumar Chaturvedi, the Superintendent of Police of Darjeeling district told IANS.
However, he refused to disclose any details about the types and quantity of arms seized by police.
According to police sources, huge cache of arms and ammunitions including bow and arrows, knives, axes and cartridges were seized from the house.
Responding to the sudden raid, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rahul Sinha claimed such drastic steps may worsen the situation in the hills and urged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to call an all-party meeting in the Bengal hills to solve the situation.
"Mamata Banerjee provoked the unrest in the hills and now she is making the situation even worse with these steps. She should immediately call an all-party meeting in Darjeeling to listen to their demands and sort out the situation," Sinha claimed.
However, he clarified that BJP is in no way supporting the GJM's demand of a separate state of Gorkhaland.
"We have never supported the Gorkhaland demand, nor do we support it now," he added.
--IANS
mgr/ssp/pgh/
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
