KLO top gun arrested

Statesman News Service

MALDA. Feb. 16. — Acting on a tip off, a hard-core Kamtapur Liberation Organisation militant, Madhab Mondal alias Malkhan Singh, and five other linkmen were arrested from Pakuahat in the Bamongola police station area, the Malda SP said today. Police seized a small China-made grenade, pistol (9 mm), including seven cartridges, a cell phone and Rs 5,000 from their possession after a raid in the Bamongola area. Authorities said Malkhan, a most wanted KLO militant who was operating in Malda, North and South Dinajpur was trained in Bhutan. “Malkhan was accused in several cases, including a murder in north Bengal. He was engaged in subversive activities and extortion in Malda, North and South Dinajpur. After training in the jungles of Bhutan, he came back to Bamongola, a bordering block and took shelter in Bangladesh,” said Mr KL Meena, I-G, north Bengal. He said police are trying to nab seven KLO men in north Bengal who are still operating from hideouts in this region and even from Bangladesh. “We have interrogated him throughout the day and more interrogation is required to find the hideouts of other KLO militants operating in Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Cooch Behar,” Mr Meena said. Last evening, police were waiting for him based on secret information that Malkhan would be coming to receive money from a schoolteacher’s house. Close to the house of the school teacher, there was a marriage ceremony and police were waiting there as guests and intercepted the ultra finally. Mr Meena said that Malkhan tried to lob a hand grenade before being caught. In January, a CPI-M worker was killed in a club and after investigation police said that KLO men killed the CPI-M worker.Local residents were under pressure after they received a ransom letter in the KLO’s name. A few CPI-M workers were also involved in sending the letter, according to the police report. The Malda SP told reporters that the KLO and Kamtapur People’s Party supporters were trying to capture the leadership of a local club in Pakuahat and after protest from an active CPI-M worker, his associates with the help of the KLO, killed him. “The matter is under investigation but suspicion about Malkhan’s involvement behind the murder cannot be ruled out,” said Mr DK Mondal and Mr Meena jointly. The I-G north Bengal and SP Jalpaiguri, came to Malda to interrogate the arrested KLO man today .#

Pic Anindita Roy