Retired Lieutenant Colonel Ramesh Ale, chairman of Bharatiya Gorkha Purba Sainik/Ardha Sainik Morcha, said more than 250 medals would be returned to the government of India if their demands were not met. [break]
According to Ale, Nepali-speaking Indian soldiers have won 256 army medals, 20 special army medals, 11 Maha Veer Chakra, one Ashoka Chakra, and one Param Veer Chakra.
Former soldiers associated with the morcha joined the movement after three members of Gorkha Liberation Front were shot dead by police at Sibsu of Jalpaigudi on February 8.
Meanwhile, amid the growing dissatisfaction over the handling of the situation by the state government, 28 people have started fast unto death. The Gorkha Land Peacekeepers and Nepali-speaking former Indian army men started the fast demanding a CBI inquiry into the Sibsu shootings and declaration of Terai-Dooars as Gorkhaland Autonomous Authority.
Ten former Indian army men are among those who have started fast unto death at various place of Darjeeling from Thursday. The other regions where people are on fast unto death are Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong, Gorubthan and Salugara and Bagrakot of Jalpaigudi.
The fasts are mainly staged around administrative offices.
Meanwhile, five women staging fast unto death at Bagrakot from February 14 were forcibly taken to Jalpaigudi District Hospital by the police on Wednesday.
Nirmala Diyali, 51, and Brinda Lama, 29, were in critical condition in a hospital on Friday, according to Dinesh Chhetri, a journalist.
Three other women, whom the police had taken to hospital and put on intravenous saline, began their fast again after being discharged.
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