Guwahati: Jeevan Singha, the commander-in-chief of the armed insurgent group Kamtapur Liberation Organization was airlifted on January 21 from Delhi to Guwahati by a special army aircraft. The KLO leader is currently being held at a BSF camp close to Guwahati.
However, the top five KLO officials, including the group’s foreign secretary, are still in Delhi to talk with the Home Department and Central Intelligence Agency on the outline of their demands.
Doctors who are keeping an eye on Jeevan Singha’s health are closely watching him.
It needs to be noted that the former residence of KLO leader Tushar Das alias Jeevan Singha, house number 102, North Haldibari in Alipurduar district, still has an active arrest warrant hanging from it.
After completing his studies, Singha joined the Kamtapur People’s Party (KPP). Later in 1991, Singha moved away from his house and joined the NSCN-K and ULFA in Nenching Naga-Basti, a Mayan settlement in Myanmar. The KLO leader went with the groups and travelled for over a month before returning to West Bengal.
The Kamtapur Liberation Organization (KLO) chief Jeevan Singha surrendered on Tuesday, January 17 in the Nayabasti area near the Myanmar border in the Mon district of Nagaland along with some of his followers.
In 2014, when Singha’s wife Bharati Das passed away in Nepal and the Bengal administration delivered the body to their home in North Haldibari, Alipurduar after a post-mortem examination, the villagers of Singha’s native place were last seen assembling together in this house amid the security cordon of the Bengal police.
Earlier on January 18, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla and Director of Intelligence Bureau Tapan Deka met Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and discussed matters related to KLO. Jeevan Singha Koch and nine-member of his group surrendered before security forces in the Longwa region in Mon district.
In the past, some KLO leaders have surrendered their positions. The organization’s second-ranking head, Kailash Koch, and his wife turned themselves in to Kolkata police in 2022.
Following their capitulation, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma extended an invitation to the group to participate in government-led peace talks.
The KLO, which is mostly active in Western Assam and northern Bengal, has been calling for the creation of a separate Kamatapur state.
The band was started by Jeevan Singha Koch in 1995, three years after he received his degree from Siliguri College.
After the group was established, they began calling for a breakaway state that would include portions of Assam, Cooch Behar, Malda, North and South Dinajpur, and Jalpaiguri districts.