Blast kills 5, injures 9 in West Bengal; KLO hand suspected

A blast in New Jaipaiguri in West Bengal has killed five persons and injured seven. The police and the Intelligence Bureau are suspecting the involvement of the dreaded Inter-Services Intelligence funded, Kamtapur Liberation Organisation. The powerful bomb was planted on a cycle.

"Five persons have died and nine were injured in a bomb blast at Bajrapara near the Jalpaiguri town. The explosives
were kept on a bicycle. It went off on a culvert over a small river and a little distance away from St Pauls School,"
Shashikant Pujara, inspector general North Bengal, said.

Asked whether KLO or any terrorist organisation was behind the blast, Sharma evaded a direct reply saying, "We are
investigating all the angles".

"As the KLO has been observing its martyrs' day on Thursday and December 28 is its foundation day, they are the suspects. We are yet to see whether it's an attack or a carrier was carrying explosives which went off accidentally," said Pujara.

Officials point out that this blast could be because of the arrest of some of their cadres, and the KLO was seeking revenge.

With this blast, the outfit has yet again announced its presence in the area.

The larger agenda of this outfit has been to create a separate Kamtaput state, and they commenced an armed struggle in 1995. 

Today, the outfit has 300 cadres and aims at carving out a separate state called Kamtapur which would comprise Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, North and South Dinajpur and Malda of West Bengal and four districts of Assam -- Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Dhubri and Goalpara. 

The outfit is headed by Jibon Singha and his deputy is Mihir Das.

The main area of operation for this outfit is West Bengal and Assam. In West Bengal the outfit is strong in South Dinajpur, North Dinajpur, Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri and Malda.

In Assam it operates at Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Dhubri and Goalpara. Overseas, it has a presence in Bhutan.

The outfit is accused of being linked closely to the United Liberation Front of Assam, National Democratic Front of Bodoland and also the Maoist insurgents from Nepal.

Very recently, an IB report pointed out that the ISI was providing support to the KLO. The ISI has been aiming at chaos in the Siliguri Coridor in West Bengal and hence chose the KLO to undertake the job.

With inputs from PTI. Image for representation only

"As the KLO has been observing its martyrs' day todayand December 28 is its foundation day, they are the suspects.We are yet to see whether it's an attack or a carrier wascarrying explosives which went off accidentally," said Pujara.