Three militants of the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), including two chief plotters of the Dec 26 Jalpaiguri blast, were Wednesday arrested from northern West Bengal, police said.
The three - KLO action squad's deputy commander-in-chief Tarun Thapa, the outfit's assistant general secretary Iqbal Siddiqi and courier Ramshankar Basak - were picked up from Adhikari near the India-Nepal border in Darjeeling district, Inspector General of Police (North Bengal) Jawed Shamim said.
Officers of the Special Operations Group made the arrests after laying a trap. Booklets on KLO were found from their possession.
"During interrogation, the three admitted their involvement in the explosion. But they told us other top guns of the KLO were also aware of the plot," said Shamim.
Five other people were earlier arrested in connection with the blast at Bajrapara area of Jalpaiguri town.
The KLO has been demanding a Kamtapur state comprising six districts - Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, North and South Dinajpur and Malda - of West Bengal and four districts of Assam - Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Dhubri and Goalpara.
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