Kamtapur Liberation Organisation chief Jibon Singha is in the limelight again as he recently made remarks on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and called her an “outsider”. The state government has filed a sedition case against him under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
In a recent video, Singha was seen attacking Banerjee by calling her “outsider”. There were allegations against Singha for threatening multiple TMC leaders. But this time UAPA was imposed on Jibon for directly attacking the Chief Minister.
A case was filed at the Bidhannagar Electronic Complex police station in Kolkata on the basis of the video that went viral last Saturday. In the video, Singha said, “Mamata’s allegation of partition of Bengal is completely false. The Koch Empire was an independent state before and after India became independent. Later it was associated with India. Before Bangladesh became independent in 1971, the Bengalis of East Bengal took shelter in this land due to the dire situation there.”
In the video, he is heard supporting BJP MP John Barla, who has demanded a separate North Bengal State. An officer of the STF says, “We have started a case against Jibon Singha in connection with the video where he is seen saying such things. We are trying to find out the source of the video and are investigating the matter.”
But the question now is that is the KLO working with the BJP to create unrest in North Bengal, especially in Cooch Behar? Incidentally, KLO has been agitating for a separate Kamtapur state since 1998. KLO chief Jibon Singha has been engaged in various cases before. A few days ago, he had threatened to kill the TMC Cooch Behar district president Parthapratim Roy and former forest minister Binoy Krishna Barman. A case of treason was filed against Jibon Singha.
The intelligence officers learned that a new squad called Kamtapur Mukti Sangathan had been formed. A total of 50 members from four districts of North Bengal are still members of the squad. It is learned that Jibon Singha himself has given advice on how the squad will run. Intelligence agencies have received information that KLO had meetings with several members of the United Liberation Front of Assam and the Muslim United Liberation Tiger of Assam.
KLO is a separatist group that started out when a faction of the Rajbongshi community could not take the neglect of the Kamtapuri language, people, and their large-scale alienation. The KLO today is most active in places like Alipurduar and Siliguri. Jibon Singha is the mysterious, elusive chief of the KLO. This group came into existence on December 28, 1995, when several members of the Koch-Rajbongshi community belonging to the All Kamtapur Students Union (AKSU) organised an armed struggle for liberation. Their demand was to separate the Kamtapur nation from the Indian mainland.
The KLO, the banned Rajbongshi outfit, was formed in the late 90s with the aim to create a separate nation of Kamtapur carved out of parts of West Bengal and Assam.
Led by Jiban Singha, who lives in Myanmar, and in association with Assamese militant group ULFA, KLO tried to disturb peace along the Bengal-Assam border in North Bengal. Since 2000-2002, murders, extortions and abductions had been common in the area.
As days go by, the demand for a separate state in North Bengal is gaining in strength. There are many sympathisers, especially among those who led separatist movements in the past. The KLO, which was once active in 1995 in demand of a separate Kamtapuri state, comprising parts of North Bengal, Assam, Bihar and Nepal and had got a quiet burial after flush-out operations in the early 2000s, is yet again raising its separatist ambitions.
The self-styled chief Singha has released a six-minute video from underground, backing such demands. The present demand for statehood for North Bengal is being pushed by prominent BJP MP John Barla. Soon after raising the demand for a separate union territory or State of North Bengal, Barla was made into a Union cabinet minister. Along with him, BJP MP from Cooch Behar, Nishith Pramanik, a Rajbanshi leader was also given a cabinet position.
On the other side Raju Bisht, a BJP MP from Darjeeling, has also raised the issue of Gorkhaland. In the midst of all this, various practices have started around KLO on the soil of North Bengal. According to some locals, the government has put the KLO to sleep in the past. Is North Bengal counting the days of new unrest again?
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