NEW DELHI, India, April5 Reuter: A Gurkha separatist leader on Tuesday threatened a “final war” with the Indian government to gain autonomy for his followers in the tea growing hills of northeastern India, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said.

The news agency said Gurkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) President Subhas Ghising rejected further talks with Indian officials for a homeland in the Darjeeling hills of West Bengal.

More than 200 people have been killed, according to unofficial estimates, in a nearly two year violent campaign by the GNLF for an autonomous Nepali speaking Gurkhaland.

PTI said the severed head of a school headmaster kidnapped on Monday was found in hill market area on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s government has proposed a semiautonomous council in the hill areas but talks between the GNLF, and the Indian Central Government and the West Bengal State government have failed to resolve the dispute.

Article extracted from this publication >> April 8, 1988