The procession brought out by ex-servicemen in Darjeeling on Sunday. Picture by Suman Tamang

Darjeeling, Dec. 14: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has demanded that the report filed by the one-man inquiry commission on the lathicharge on an ex-servicemen rally eight months ago be made public within a week. The hill party has threatened to help the former jawans organise an agitation if the government fails to meet the deadline.

This is the third ultimatum served by the hill party on the government in the past three days. The first was on Friday. The party gave the government time till the 22nd of this month to arrest those accused in the Kalchini clashes, failing which it would skip the tripartite talks. Another ultimatum was served today in the Dooars, where the Morcha has threatened to start a movement if a panchayat pradhan, alleged to have masterminded an attack on Dhanraj Thapa, is not arrested.

Morcha leader Dawa Lama, while addressing a rally of the ex-servicemen in Chowrastha this afternoon, said the commission was supposed to announce the report within a month of the incident on April 9. “We have heard that the report is with the chief minister. We will wait for one more week, after which we will help the ex-servicemen start an agitation.”

Mams Tamang, a retired inspector of the Central Reserve Police Force and a resident of Kurseong, had claimed that he had taken at least nine injured persons to the Sukna primary health centre after the lathicharge on the rally brought out in Siliguri in support of Gorkhaland.

The government had given the principal secretary of the environment department, M.L. Meena, the task of conducting the inquiry. The panel was expected to prepare the report by May 23, but with the former army men deposing late, the report was expected to take a month. But till date, the government has not made the report public.

The terms of reference of the inquiry commission were: the sequence of events leading to police action against the agitators: whether it was justified or not; if not, the persons or officers responsible for it and any recommendation that might prevent such incidents in future.

Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said the police in north Bengal had been “politicised”.“The party will write to the National Human Rights Commission on the role of the police in Kalchini and Debidanga,” he added.

The Morcha said work at the NHPC sites would not be allowed to continue. However, Grameen and co-operative banks will be allowed to function from tomorrow. Since December 8, the outfit has been trying to enforce a strike in government offices in the area it wants as part of Gorkhaland.