Security Beefed up at International Border in Bengal after KLO Threats

KOLKATA:
Following alerts from the central agencies amid fresh insurgency threats from the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), security has been beefed up at India’s International Borders (IBs) in West Bengal with Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

The alert and the follow-up security beefing at the IBs in West Bengal has been initiated following Sunday night threat issued by KLO convener Daosar Langham Koch about massive insurgency operations in wake of the forthcoming Diwali festival.

As per information available with the intelligence agencies, the audio statement by Koch has been issued somewhere at the International Border in Tripura. The threat message has been specially directed towards the traders and traders’ associations in North Bengal for “denying financial assistance” to the banned underground outfit to spearhead the movement for a separate Kamtapur state.

At the same time, it also threatened some former KLO associates, who are now in favour of peace talks with the Indian government, of “dire consequences” if they do not refrain from their initiatives on this count.

The police administration has taken up the threat statement seriously considering that events ofthreat letters to local businessmen in North Bengal demanding hefty ransom amounts by KLO, which virtually became a forgotten chapter, has resurrected in the recent past.

The seriousness of the matter aggravates further amid recent developments wherein the Kamtapur State Demand Committee, an independent committee demanding separate Kamtapur statehood, has sought immediate beginning of peace talks between the Centre and the banned KLO.The committee has also decided to begin a massive public awareness campaign to highlight the need for initiation of peace talks.

The committee has demanded that recently-surrendered KLO general secretary Kailash Koch, who is currently in judicial custody in West Bengal, should also be involved in the peace talks.