The area virtually turned into a battlefield as protests marked the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's (GJM) indefinite shutdown which entered the sixth day.
Darjeeling, on the boil over the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state, on Saturday witnessed widespread clashes between GJM activists and police, killing a civilian and seriously injuring an India Reserve Battaliion assistant commandant.
Violence has spiralled in the hills after a police raid on the office of GJM chief Bimal Gurung, who is in hiding fearing arrest.
The Centre and the State Government should resolve the "political problem", he said.
In 2012, the GJM secured all the 45 seats at the GTA - some of them unopposed.
A North Bengal Transport Corporation bus, bound for Bijanbari from Siliguri, was set ablaze by pro-Gorkhaland protestors, who also beat up the driver and the conductor.
She said that the GJM has connections with insurgent groups in the Northeast and some foreign countries. Morcha supporters allegedly started stone pelting and police retaliated by firing tear gas shells, WION has learnt. Anuj Sharma, ADGP (law and order), however, denied that the police had shot at the protesters.
The GJM insisted the police had fired on the protesters. GJM supporters threw both stones and bottles at the police. "We can not allow them to violate the national flag". They are using arms, throwing bombs and indulging in vandalism in such a way.
"The current situation is very tense but under control", Akhilesh Kumar Chaturvedi, superintendent of Darjeeling police told AFP by phone.
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On the recovery of weapons, Giri had earlier said, "What have they found?"
Following the raids, the GJM called for an indefinite shutdown in the hills from Thursday.
The Union home minister said Mamata had informed him that no notification had been issued by the Bengal government making Bengali a compulsory language in the hills - the supposed trigger for the ongoing agitation. Two of our supporters have died because of the state government.
However, in view of the fresh trouble erupting in the picturesque hill demanding separate Gorkhaland state, the meeting may not take place at all. She should stop lecturing so much and concentrate on her job.
Mamata Banerjee said her government was ready to talk to the protesters but could not support the "violation of the constitution".
She said in such a scenario, the Centre and the state must start talking on the matter.
According to a railway official, the toy-train services of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) has been suspended in view of the strike for the safety of passengers and staffs.
Referring to the CBI naming senior GJM leaders in the Akhil Bharatiya Gorkha League leader Madan Tamang's murder, Banerjee said its chief Bimal Gurung was a "corrupt leader" trying to sell off the hills and hampering the development work taken up by the state government there.
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