KLO duo in border net

TT, Malda, June 21: The BSF said it arrested two Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) militants today during a raid to nab cattle smugglers near the Bangladesh border at dawn.

The two, identified as Bhudeb Roy, 23, and Nirmal Sarkar, 19, were allegedly involved in the gunning down of BJP leader Nripen Mondal in Malda's Habibpur on June 16, 2013, just before the panchayat polls. The BSF raiding party found two firearms of foreign make, several mobile phone SIM cards, fake identification papers and army fatigues on the two.

The raid was conducted at Bamungola in Malda at 5am today, the border force said.

Both youths were said to be close to arrested KLO commander Malkhan Singh.

Malkhan was arrested by a police special investigation team from Habibpur on April 13, 2014.

According to Arjun Singh Rathore, the deputy inspector-general of the BSF's Malda sector, the two were arrested along with a cattle smuggler.

"Early today, a BSF patrol of four jawans was on vigil in the area at Khuntadaha and Adadanga. The area is yet to be fenced. The patrol noticed a number of men were trying to smuggle cattle across the border. When they were challenged, the smugglers fired shots at our men," Rathore said at the BSF Malda headquarters.

The deputy inspector-general said half a kilometre from the spot where the smugglers were seen is a camp of the BSF 31 Battalion. "On hearing shots being fired, jawans from the camp rushed to the spot and returned fire. Three men were caught on the spot. One of them is a cattle smuggler, Saifur Mondol, and two KLO militants, Bhudeb Roy and Nirmal Sarkar," Rathore said.

The BSF officer said the two KLO men were closely linked to Malkhan.

"Bhudeb Roy was the right hand man of Malkhan Singh. Nirmal Sarkar was a personal security guard of Malkhan Singh. We have specific information with us about them being part of the KLO. Both were involved in the gunning down BJP leader Nripen Mondal in June 2013. While Malkhan was arrested last year, both these men were at large," Rathore said.

The deputy inspector-general said the two KLO militants were involved in extortion and smuggling rackets. "We have found out that the two were involved in extorting money from businessmen along the border and also cross-border smuggling of cattle. We have found SIM cards, fake identity cards and military uniforms from them. We are interrogating them before handing them over to the police," Rathore said.

BSF sources said the KLO duo was carrying sling bags.

After the arrested youths were brought to the BSF camp and their belongings frisked, two handguns, one of American make, the other German, were found in the bag. "We found 16 SIM cards belonging to several mobile service providers, 12 fake identity documents like voter cards and driving licences....There was also five pairs of army fatigues," a BSF source said.