Army, police bust 'recruitment module' of militant group in Assam, seven nabbed

Security forces in Assam claimed to have busted a 'fresh recruitment module' of Kamatapur Liberation Army (KLO), a militant group and arrested seven cadres inside a reserve forest.

A statement issued by Army on Friday morning said based on specific information, a joint team of Army and Assam police launched an operation inside Chakrasila reserve forest in western Assam's Kokrajhar district on Thursday. "The highly coordinated and successful operation resulted in busting of the KLO Recruitment Module and apprehension of seven dreaded KLO cadres. The Recruitment Module was operational since December 2019 and was being run by one Lankeshwar Koch alias Lambu, a Myanmar-trained self-styled area commander of Lower Assam, along with four Bangladesh-trained and two newly recruited cadres," said the statement issued by Lt. Col P Khongsai, Public Relations Officer (Defence) in Guwahati.

It said the KLO was trying to gain prominence particularly in western Assam districts after NDFB, a big militant group had laid down their arms and signed a new Bodo Accord in January this year.

The KLO, which seeks a sovereign nation for the Koch Rajbongshi community, had started a fresh recruitment drive after the NDFB signed the accord, it said.

"Since two months, a number of operations were launched to apprehend this module which had restricted these cadres in contacting local youths for recruitment. The cadres were finally caught while they were attending a meeting inside the forest," it said.

Four factory-made pistols, three country-made pistols and ammunition were seized from the arrested militants. "Apprehension of the seven cadres and busting of recruitment module has dealt a severe blow to the ulterior motives of KLO which has been trying hard to gain prominence after NDFB disbanded. The successful operations will help in lowering the morale of insurgent organisations and boost the confidence of security forces," Khongsai said.