Assam: Senior KLO 'commander' killed in encounter with police

A self-styled commander of the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation, who was allegedly involved in the killing of an agriculture department engineer, was shot dead in an encounter with security forces at Nayakgaon village in lower Assam's Kokrajhar district.

Brindaban Rajbangshi of Fakiragram area of the district had a Rs three lakh reward on his head, police said. Following a tip-off about the movement of a group of three KLO militants in the area under Kokrajhar police station, a joint operation was launched by the police and army on Saturday night, Inspector general of Police (BTAD Kokrajhar) L R Bishnoi told PTI.

The KLO militants fired at the security personnel who retaliated killing the self-styled commander of the KLO while the other two militants managed to escape in the cover of darkness, police sources said.

Assam government had announced reward of Rs 3 lakh for his arrest, Bishnoi said.

Rajbangshi was allegedly involved in the killing of an Assam Agriculture department engineer Gadapani Pathak around two years back. He was also allegedly involved in several kidnapping cases in Kokrajhar district, the sources said.

A pistol with 10 rounds of ammunition, grenades, some documents, two SIM cards and Myanmarese currencies were recovered from Rajbangshi, the IGP said adding, search operations were on to apprehend the two other militants who escaped.