West Bengal’s Left-Front government on Friday squarely blamed the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha for the murder of Gorkha leader and Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League president Madan Tamang.
As soon as news of Tamang’s assassination reached Kolkata, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee convened an emergency meeting at Writers’ Buildings to review the law and order situation in the hills. State DGP Bhupinder Singh, state home secretary Samar Ghosh, chief secretary Ardhendu Sen and urban development minister Ashok Bhattacharya were present at the meeting.
“It was a pre-meditated murder by GJM goons. Tamang had been persistently raising his voice against the fascist ways of the GJM. He was eliminated because he was relentlessly working for the restoration of democracy in the hills,” Mr Bhattacharya said, adding that Tamang’s killing may jeopardise the future of tripartite talks over the Darjeeling imbroglio.
The home secretary said the state government was sending additional forces to the hills while the chief secretary said an inquiry had been ordered. Railway minister and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee also condemned Tamang’s murder and slammed the state government for the deterioration of law and order.
“Such intolerance of political dissent will prove fatal for democracy. If anyone had ideological differences with Tamang, they should have settled it politically, not through violence,” she added.