SIKKIM HIGHWAY: POSITION

Dec. 28: Nearly 400 members of the Gorkha Janmukti Vidyarthi Morcha were arrested today with police swinging into action, not in Darjeeling or on the national highways under siege but in Jalpaiguri, where the hill outfit is not known to have much of a hold.

Among those arrested from the road linking Bhutan with India were schoolchildren who had been brought in by the Morcha.

At Dagapur and Sevoke, in the foothills, and at Rangpo, on the way to Gangtok, traffic continued to be blocked between noon and 4pm.

At the level crossing at Sevoke Bazar, Morcha supporters squatted on the tracks.

At least three trains — the Delhi-Alipurduar Mahananda Express, the Danapur-Kamakshya Capital Express and the Ranchi-Alipurduar Express — were stuck for three to four hours.

The protest will be longer tomorrow, beginning at 10am, the Morcha announced. “We will block the highways and train lines for five hours from 10am tomorrow to protest the arrests,” said the general secretary of the Morcha’s student wing, Keshav Raj Pokhrel.