Headlines
GNLF chief Subhas Ghising dead
New Delhi/Siliguri, 29 Jan
Gorkha National
Liberation Front (GNLF) chief Subash Ghising, who gave birth to the
Gorkhaland movement, Thursday passed away at a hospital in New Delhi
following prolonged illness. He was 79.
"Ghising was undergoing
treatment at Sir Gangaram Hospital. He died this afternoon (Thursday).
His body will be taken to Siliguri (in West Bengal) for the final
rituals Friday," GNLF central committee member Prakash Dahal said.
Ghising
was suffering from several diseases including liver related disorders
since September 2014 and was moved to New Delhi after his condition
deteriorated.
In New Delhi, hospital sources said Ghising was
admitted to the hospital five days back and was being treated for
cirrhosis of liver. He had been admitted to the hospital with a similar
problem two months back, they said.
West Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee as well as the opposition Communist Party of
India-Marxist mourned his death and offered condolence to the bereaved
family.
Ghising, a former soldier, led a prolonged violent
struggle in the 1980s for a separate Gorkhaland state to be carved out
of north Bengal's Darjeeling district, before signing an agreement Aug
22, 1988 with the central and state governments for creation of the
Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), an autonomous governing body for
the hills. He chaired the DGHC till 2008.
He lived-in-exile from
the hills after his GNLF was sidelined in early 2008 by the Gorkha
Janmukti Morcha that spearheads the movement now. He, later, returned to
the hills in 2011.
Born June 22, 1936 in Darjeeling, Ghising,
who was vocal on issues concerning the hills, formed a political outfit -
Nilo Jhanda - in 1968 to further the cause.
He raised the demand
for a separate state for the Nepali-speaking people of the Darjeeling
hills for the first time in April 1979. He subsequently formed the GNLF
in 1980 to achieve statehood.