Mukesh Sharma

Kalimpong April 9th:

The Bharatiya Gorkha Bhutpurba Sainik and Ardhasainik Morcha today took out a protest rally to mark the day when ex-servicemen from the hills were lathicharged in Siliguri on April 9,2008.

The rally started from Town hall premises in which large number of Ex serviceman took party carrying Black Flag and a black armband tied to thier hand. The rally encircled the whole town and ended up at the Martyr park of Sahid Roshan Rai in Eastmain Road Fatak.

Lt Col (retd) Ramesh Allay, the president of the ex-servicemen association, said: “ We cannot forget the day when empty handed ex serviceman were brutally lathicharged by police. 7-8 member were seriously injured while 56 other sustained injuries.We will not rest until we have our own separate state he added.

The lathicharge which led to an uproar in the hills and the state government constituted a one-man commission chaired by M.L. Meena, a principal secretary to the state government, to probe the incident. He said' we have not received report of the commission despite filing a RTI . We have wrote to PM Last December after which I have received  a copy from PMO office that the Defense ministry have been informed to bring out commission report public and hoped soon it will come out' informed Col Allay.