A top ranking leader of the underground Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) has been arrested from a village in West Bengal's Malda district, police said today.
Malkhan Singh alias Madhav Mondal was captured last night from a jungle near Jamalpur village in Habibpur, Superintendent of Police, Malda, said.
On receiving a tip-off that Malkhan Singh was hiding in a jungle near Jamalpur, a police posse rushed to the spot and cordoned off the village and nabbed him, the SP said.
One automatic rifle, ammunition and cash were seized from the militant, the SP said.
Singh, who has several cases related to terrorist activities pending against him, will be produced in the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court today.
Police had been on the look-out for Singh for a long time and had posted look-out notices for him. On receiving information that the militant was sighted in a village in Habibpur ten days ago, police had rushed to the spot but Singh had given them the slip, the SP said.
The KLO was formed in 1995 with the objective of carving out a separate Kamtapur state comprising six districts-- Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, North and South Dinajpur and Malda--of West Bengal and four contiguous districts of Assam--Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Dhubri and Goalpara.
