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Kamtapur rebels are a fresh cause for worry

Worried over the increasing subversive activities in the north-east, the West Bengal police are keeping a close watch on the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation in north Bengal in view of a possibility of their giving shelter to Bhutan-based United Liberation Front of Asom and Bodo militants.

With the neighbouring Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan agreeing to flush out militants operating from its territory because of growing pressure from India, ''a section of north-eastern militants may try to take refuge in areas where the KLO has influence,'' inspector general of police (north Bengal) K K Das said.

''We don't want to take chances even though we are yet to officially know about the flush-out in Bhutan. But we feel the time is ripe for such action,'' IGP Das said.

With insurgent groups from the north-east and Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence using the Siliguri corridor as a 'safe-house', the Union home ministry too is concerned over the growing subversive activities of ULFA in league with the Kamtapuri activists. The Kamtapuris, in exchange for arms and money, provide shelter to ULFA, operating from camps situated in the jungles on the Bhutanese side, hardly 10 km north of central Dooars.

The situation in the region has become a major cause of concern for the authorities since the gunning down of Communist Party of India-Marxist Jalpaiguri district committee member Paresh Pal at Ghogsapara near the Assam-Bengal border last week.

Meanwhile, the district magistrate, Jalpaiguri, Subrata Gupta maintains that preliminary investigations indicate involvement of the KLO. The KLO is one of three organisations, including the Kamtapur Peoples Party and the All Kamtapur Students Union which, are fighting for the formation of a separate state of Kamtapur for Rajbanshis in northern Bengal.

''Bhutan may find it difficult to completely uproot the militants who have formed a kind of economic system in the border region,'' Das said.

''Militants normally pay money to border villagers for logistic support,'' said the IGP while expressing fears that the presence of people of similar ethnicity in northern Bengal might help the militants escape detection.

The first reported ULFA-Kamtapuri armed operation was the abduction of tea garden owner Roshan Lal Garg from his Latabari tea estate in central Dooars in July 1999. It was the first time that militants in north Bengal used sophisticated arms like AK-47s.

The IGP said, ''Since last year, at least a dozen militants have been arrested in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts bordering Bhutan in the north, Bangladesh in the south and Assam in the west. Most of the arrests have been made in Jalpaiguri which has a sizeable Bodo population.''

Banned outfits like the ULFA and Bodo outfits camp in the jungles of Bhutan where they train and recoup to carry out subversive activities on Indian soil. The Centre too has set up an information network with Bhutan to exchange and monitor the activities of these outfits.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs Ajit Kumar Panja told reporters on Friday that the government was contemplating setting up similar networks with the governments of Bangladesh and Nepal, where there were reports of subversive elements seeking shelter, along with increased Pakistani ISI activities.

Panja said, ''The move of setting up such a network would further improve relations between India and the three neighbouring countries.''

The West Bengal government too recently decided to deploy a special combat force of the state armed police personnel, especially trained at the state's advanced training centre at Salua in Midnapore, in the two north Bengal districts to contain subversive activities.

This apart, the state government has also announced up-gradation of its border task force to man the borders with Nepal in north Bengal, in view of reports of growing ISI activities in the region.

Besides, the state and the railway police have also made special arrangements to guard the rail and road network and bridges over the Sankosh river that joins the north-east with the rest of the country. This followed the bomb explosion at New Jalpaiguri railway station on June 22 last year which claimed the lives of several Indian army jawans.

UNI

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