From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Growing coordination between two militants groups based in neighbouring areas of West Bengal (North Bengal) and Western Assam’s Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) areas have prompted the Central government to advise both the state governments in Assam and West Bengal to work out joint strategy to deal with the groups effectively.
A security source informed that the outlawed Kamatapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) which is now active in few pockets in North Bengal has struck coordination with National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit faction).
The KLO recently sent 30 of its cadres from Bongaigaon and Dhubri districts of western Assam to Myanmar for training with the help of NDFB (Sangbijit faction) raising concern among the security agencies.
The KLO cadres have gone to Myanmar base of Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim (Khaplang) or NSCN-K to undergo training as the NDFB faction has provided all sorts of support for them.
In response to the support from the NDFB faction, the KLO helped the former in four recent incidents of abduction in BTC areas bordering West Bengal.
The security agencies have information that the KLO was provided with explosives like TNT and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by the NDFB faction at this crucial juncture when the area including parts of North Bengal and parts of Western Assam have become restive in view of agitation launched by several Koch-Rajbongshi organisations demanding a separate Kamatapur state.
Security agencies fear that the KLO in coordination with NDFB (Sangbijit) is likely to strike terror in Assam and parts of North Bengal taking advantage of the current fluid situation.
The KLO, whose activities were basically confined to North Bengal areas, has now become active in parts of Western Assam.
The outfit assumed a very low profile few years back after it had suffered a major set-back in December 2003 when its base in Bhutan was uprooted by Bhutanese Army during ‘Operation All-Clear’ launched by it against militant groups operating from the soil of the Himalayan Kingdom.