KLO denies links with arrested six

July 7: The Kamtapur Liberation Organisation has said six men who were arrested in the past two weeks are not its members and police were linking them to the organisation to defame it. The militant outfit issued the denial in a press release sent to media houses via email. The statement, signed by KLO publicity secretary Rajiv Kathai on July 5, was sent to the media outlets today. The Malda police had arrested the six men from different parts of the district in the past two weeks and some of them were linked to the murder of BJP leader Nripen Mondal on June 16 and the bomb blast that killed one person and injured 10 at Bidrohi More in Gajole on June 25. The KLO has contradicted the police claim. “It has been known to us… that the West Bengal Police arrested some people with fake notes. According to the version of police, they are all leaders of KLO. Actually, the police of West Bengal intentionally made them leaders (of KLO) for defaming the party. That is a dirty policy and plan of the Indian colonial regime to create a bad image in the eyes of Kamtapuri peoples,” the letter said. “The arrested people mentioned above are not related to our party and the statement of West Bengal police was totally false,” the press release read. The statement was sent from the email account of Kathai. The police said the arrested were Kamtapur People’s Party leader Ajoy Sarkar, KLO militants Somnath Mardi, Shibu Tudu and Mondal Soren and linkmen Rajib Murmu and Sukumar Roy. Sarkar and Roy are Rajbangshis but the other four are tribals. Intelligence agencies said this was the first time anyone other than a Rajbangshi was arrested for alleged links with the KLO. The police also said the organising secretary of the KLO, Malkhan Singh, was behind the BJP leader’s murder and the bomb blast, and he and his associates were planning subversive activities in the district. A 30-member special police team was also formed to capture Malkhan and his aides. The police today iterated that all the arrested six were members of the KLO or the KPP. “We have information that Malkhan Singh is hiding in Malda. The police are trying to arrest him. The arrested include frontline cadres of KLO like Somnath Mardi and Sukumar Roy. Both of them are close to Malkhan. During interrogation, they have spilled beans on the activities and plans of KLO,” said Sashikant Pujari, the inspector-general of police, north Bengal. Police and intelligence officials, who had served in the KLO hotbeds of north Bengal in the early years of the last decade, were not surprised by the denial statement issued by the outfit. “It’s a common tactic adopted by the militant outfit to deny its connection with arrested cadres and linkmen in order to create pressure on police and confuse the investigators. KLO had only Rajbangshi youths earlier and now it has members from other communities also as was evident from the arrest of four tribal men,’ said an intelligence official.