KLO 24-hour strike call

TT, Aug. 25: The Kamtapur Liberation Organisation has called a 24-hour general strike in north Bengal and Lower Assam on August 28 demanding a separate Kamtapur state.

The outfit has urged the Rajbangshis to observe August 28 as a Black Day.

“Kamtapur or Kochbehar was never a party of India not even of West Bengal or Assam. Kamtapur was a definitely independent and sovereign state before the independence of India. But in 1949, on 28th August according to merger agreement between India and princely state Kamtapur is included as a ‘C’ category state in India,” reads a press release signed by Shyam Roy, the self-styled commander-in-chief of the militant outfit.

“The KLO and Kamtapur people have been agitating and lamenting to recover this motherland for a long years. But the Government didn’t pay any attention,” says the release mailed to journalists from the account of Rajiv Katai, the self-styled publicity secretary of the outfit.

“So the KLO has decided to observe on 28th August as a Black Day and is calling 24 hours Kamtapur strike. At the same time we call upon and request all Kamtapur people to observe 28th August as a Black Day.”

The strike has been called in six districts of north Bengal and four-five districts of lower Assam, the area which militant outfits like the KLO and other organisations like the Kamtapur Peoples’ Party, Greater Cooch Behar Democratic Party and Greater Cooch Behar Peoples’ association are demanding to be included in the Kamtapur state.

North Bengal development minister Gautam Deb said the government was against partition of Bengal and formation of separate state out of it. “Any attempt to create tension in the region or across the state in the name of movement for statehood would be strictly dealt with by the administration,” he said.

(Source & Courtesy: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130826/jsp/siliguri/story_17272635.jsp#.UhqtB9JmjlU)