West Bengal police arrests Kamtapur Liberation Organisation militant

The youth has been identified as Tapan Roy, aged about 26, resident of Kumargram in Alipurduar district.

"We have arrested an active member of KLO (KN) (Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KN)) Tapas Roy of Kumargram in Alipurduar district," Sudip Bhattacharya, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Special Task Force (STF) Siliguri said speaking to ANI.

Speaking on charges against the accused, the DSP said, "He used to extort money from various areas to raise funding for arms and ammunition for their revolution. He collected money from some while giving threat letter for extortion to others."

Speaking on the possible reorganization of KLO, the DSP said, "They want to create a similar situation in north Bengal that existed during 1999-2000."

The DSP futher said that the separatist organization regrouped themselves after their chief, Jiban Singha surrendered and came to Assam.

"After Jiban Singh came here in Assam, some of their members who were in Bangladesh did not come over. They did not surrender to the government. They named themselves KLO (KN). So they started the organization again," Bhattacharya said.

On seeking remand from the court, the DSP said, "We have asked for police remand from the court. We had pleaded for 14 days but we got 10 days."

According to SFT, Tapan Roy is an active member of KLO's student organisation AKSU and used to do extortion from the business community in different areas of North Bengal to reorganise the banned militant outfit KLO (KN), whose headquarters are now based in Bangladesh.

The DSP said that based upon the source information, the police intercepted the person and during the interrogation, they found that Tapas was an active member of the outfit and tried to collect the money to reunited the militant organisation.

The accused was produced before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) court and the police got 14 days remand for further investigation. The accused has been charged with waging war against the state by the court. (ANI)