Feb. 5: After a night of violence, the student wing of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha today went about enforcing its “ban” on all government vehicles plying in the hills and called for a closure of educational institutions in the area it wants as “Gorkhaland” till permission is granted for a rally in Siliguri.

With members of the Vidyarthi Morcha keeping a sharp eye on the roads, not a single government vehicle, including those belonging to police, moved in the hills and almost all officials stayed away from work.

Although there was no fresh violence, tension was evident in the hills as Morcha supporters stalked the streets and the police stayed behind shut doors.

However, the closure call to schools is unlikely to impact immediately as the educational institutions in the hills are only scheduled to reopen after winter holidays at the end of this month and the Morcha’s writ does not run in the plains.

But 10-odd schools and colleges in the Sukna area in the foothills may have to bow to the Morcha diktat.

Last night, after the police forcibly removed several youth supporters of the Morcha on an indefinite fast in Siliguri and arrested 22 of them, a police jeep was set on fire in Darjeeling and a constable and guard were beaten up in Kalimpong, where two buses were also torched.

The indefinite fast was announced to press for permission to hold a rally in Siliguri.

District magistrate Surendra Gupta, who had been confined to his office for 11 hours by the Morcha, was allowed to leave at 2.30am today, after the release on bail of all Morcha supporters arrested in Siliguri.

Although Morcha chief Bimal Gurung, who was in Kalimpong yesterday refused comment, central committee member Amar Lama said: “It is normal for the administration to provoke our supporters just before talks are to be held. They are to be blamed fully for the lathicharge.”

But inspector-general of police, north Bengal, K.L. Tamta, blamed the Morcha leaders for not being able to contain the violence unleashed in the hills by their supporters.

“They burnt police and government buses and even attacked a policeman in Kalimpong where Bimal Gurung had been camping last evening,” Tamta said. “The Morcha leadership has no control over its followers.”

Despite the blame game, the district administration made it clear that it would not go for any confrontation on the issue of plying of government vehicles. “No government vehicles are on the road, neither are there any police vehicles around,” Gupta said.

Officials said they would allow space for “tempers to cool” so that there was no repeat of last night’s flare-up.

But the Morcha is in no mood to relent on its demand for permission to hold a meeting in Siliguri.

“We have given the district magistrate seven days’ time to give us permission,” said Kismat Chhetri, president of the Vidyarthi Morcha. “If there is no permission forthcoming even after that, then government vehicles will not be allowed to ply in the hills.”

Current indications are that the permission that the Morcha is seeking may not be forthcoming in a hurry. “All our reports suggest that there will be a breach of law and order if we give the Morcha youths permission to hold the rally in Siliguri,” a police officer said.