GUWAHATI, Jan 8 — In view of the ‘close links’ between the banned ULFA and Kamatapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) based in North Bengal areas, Assam Police is in touch with West Bengal Police to hammer out a joint strategy to contain KLO activities. The Director General of Assam Police, Sri H N Deka, today told The Assam Tribune that a meeting between the State Police and its West Bengal counterpart would soon take place to discuss strategy to check the growing activities of the KLO. Sri Deka said, ‘a joint strategy between Assam Police and West Bengal Police is the need of the hour as the KLO is creating problem for both the States as the organisation in very active in the inter-state boundary areas in North Bengal.’
The State police chief informed that the KLO had a close relation with the banned ULFA and the latter took the help of the former in carrying out operations like extortion in North Bengal areas. He said the ULFA cadres also utilised KLO service to travel out of Assam through North Bengal areas. He, however, stated that barring a few pockets in the bordering district of Dhubri, KLO elements were not active inside Assam territory so far. The outfit is getting active co-operation from the ULFA creating concern in both Assam and West Bengal governments, he said.
Regarding co-ordination level among State Governments of North-Eastern States tackling militancy, the DGP, Sri Deka termed the level of co-operation especially in intelligence sharing as very high as well as effective. He was all praise for Meghalaya Police in extending co-operation to Assam Police in thawarting attempts by ULFA militants to travel to Bangladesh through Garo Hills of the neighbouring State. ‘We have conducted several joint operations with Meghalaya police recently against militants and operations were successful, he informed.
When drawn to media reports about bids by ULFA to revive their base in Bangladesh by shifting cadres based in Bhutan, Sri Deka stated that, ‘ULFA has been having base in Bangladesh since 1990 onwards and is still having base in that country. Although the State police is not in possession of any specific information about ULFA setting up new bases in Bangladesh, there has been noticeable increase in cross border movements of ULFA militants of late.’ The DGP further informed that both the ULFA and NDFB militants were trying to regroup as well as restructure their bases in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. ‘We have intelligence inputs which are subject to verification, about new militants camps being set up in further interior areas inside Bhutan. As far as our information there was no basic change as far as presence of ULFA and NDFB militants in Bhutanese territory,’ Sri Deka informed.