One person died and a home guard was injured when a police station in West Bengal’s restive Darjeeling hills was attacked with a grenade on Saturday night.

Sources identified the dead as ‘civic police’ Rakesh Routh (31).

The attack at Kalimpong police station happened less than 24 hours after a suspected IED went off at Chowk Bazar in Darjeering town around midnight on Friday.

Police sources said the grenade was lobbed towards the police station, but it hit an electric cable and got deflected.

Kalimpong police superintendent Ajit Yadav confirmed the attack.

This is the first bomb attack on a police station since violence broke out on June 8 in the Darjeering hills over a demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland to be carved out of West Bengal’s northern districts.

Gorkhaland supporters had torched police stations, guest houses, government offices and stations of the famous hill train, but none of these were attacked with grenades and bombs.

The hills have been reeling from an indefinite strike since June 15.

The blast in Darjeeling town left an eight-inch hole on the road. Debris and shrapnel from the explosion broke shutters of shops in the area. No one was wounded as the streets were empty.

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