Centre set to resolve conflict situation with Northeast militant group

Guwahati: In a significant move, the Union home ministry is set to resolve the ongoing conflict with another militant group of northeast — the Kamatapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) — facilitating safe passage to its top leadership that is holed up in Myanmar to India for peace talks which are going on through mediators.

Informing that KLO leadership led by its chairman Jibon Singha was allowed to enter India in Nagaland’s Mon district, security sources said that they would be flown to New Delhi to join the peace talks which are said to be in the final stages.

Indicating that the Centre was prepared to fulfil a few demands of the organisation, security sources clarified that it was not possible to fulfil their demand of a separate Kamatapur state or Union Territory comprising their claimed areas of influence.

The KLO caters to the aspirations of the Koch-Rajbongshi community scattered across northern West Bengal and western Assam besides Bangladesh. The KLO’s map of Kamatapur covering large swathes of Assam and West Bengal includes the Bodoland Territorial Region and parts of the proposed Gorkhaland.

Asserting that KLO leadership was under pressure due to adverse circumstances that outfit has been facing due to growing financial challenges in Myanmar, security sources however refused to divulge the modalities that have already been worked out to sign a peace-deal with the outfit.

Formed in December 1995, the KLO has been pursuing the dream of a ‘Kamatapur nation’ carved out of parts of Assam and West Bengal for the Koch-Rajbongshi community, one of six demanding Scheduled Tribe status.

The proposed map of Kamatapur includes much of the Bodoland Territorial Council in Assam and parts of the perceived Gorkhaland in West Bengal.

Meanwhile, popular Assamese singer Zubeen Garg, who was at the forefront of the movement against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, has asked the people of Assam to oppose the Centre’s bid to create a Kamatapur state.

“I have heard that Assam will be divided again. You have to oppose it by all means,” Mr Garg told an audience at a function in western Assam’s Goalpara.

AGP legislator Phani Bhusan Choudhury had earlier raised his voice against the Kamatapur move. “We don’t want another division of Assam,” he said.