Story highlights Nepali-speaking Gorkhas are demanding a state within India

Three people have been killed and up to 60 injured

Region-wide strike has left tourism and tea industries in ruins

New Delhi (CNN) The sleepy hills of India's northeast have erupted into violence, as calls for a separate state for the area's Nepali-speaking Gorkhas gain traction.

The protest movement -- now entering into its ninth day and showing no signs of resolution -- is centered around the tea producing region of Darjeeling, in West Bengal, home to the country's largest concentration of ethnic Gorkhas.

As many as three people have been killed and up to 60 injured, in ongoing clashes between protestors and local paramilitary forces. Earlier this week, military troops were drafted into the region in a bid to help quell tensions, which have hurt the region's tea and tourist industries.

The protests are part of a wider regional strike as called for by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) -- an ethno-nationalist political party spearheading the statehood movement -- that has seen the local economy paralyzed, as workers abandon their posts and take to the streets in their thousands.

Crisis deepens

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