Kamtapur Liberation Organisation


The Kamtapur Liberation Organisation is a militant organisation based in Northeast India whose objective is to carve out a separate Kamtapur nation from India. The proposed state is to comprise six districts in West Bengal and four contiguous districts of Assam which are Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, North and South Dinajpur and Malda, Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Dhubri and Goalpara, Kishanganj districts in Bihar and Jhapa Disstt. in Nepal. The KLO was formed to address problems of the Koch Rajbongshi people such as large-scale unemployment, land alienation, perceived neglect of Kamtapuri language, identity, and grievances of economic deprivation.

History

The beginning of the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation can be traced to the attempts of certain members of the Koch Rajbongshi people belonging to the All Kamtapur Students Union to organise an armed struggle for a separate Kamtapur nation. For this purpose, they approached the United Liberation Front of Asom. The KLO came into existence on December 28, 1995.

Leadership and organisation

Tamir Das alias Jibon Singha is the chairman of the KLO. He was arrested in October 1999 but regained control over the outfit after he was released by the Assam Police in a bid to make the other KLO cadres surrender. Milton Burman alias Mihir Das is the second in command of the outfit.