Separatist group top leader in Bengal surrenders before police
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Kolkata: The underground separatist group Kamtapur Liberation Organisation's (KLO) top man Kailash Koch surrendered before the West Bengal police, IANS reported.
Kailash Koch's wife and child accompanied him on Thursday when he, the general secretary of KLO, surrendered. He arrived at the West Bengal police headquarters in the state capital and submitted his AK-47 rifle before DGP Manoj Malviya.
The DGP said, "This is a great day. Koch was an important leader of the Kamtapur liberation movement. He has voluntarily surrendered along with his wife. He has also submitted his AK-47 rifle."
Kailas Koch claimed that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's inspiration appeal motivated him to surrender.
He told the media, "I am really impressed by the development work undertaken by her (Banerjee's) government for the people of the proposed Kamtapur region in West Bengal. I want to come back to the mainstream, and hence I decided to surrender along with my wife."
He, who waged armed revolution for years, said that he has realized such an act is no solution for anything.
"So, I appeal to the other activists of KLO to surrender their arms and return to the mainstream," he said, adding that they will do the same in the coming days.
The development is seen as a major setback for the KLO movement in West Bengal, especially at a time when KLO chief Jeevan Singh, through a recent video message from an undisclosed location, threatened of a bloodbath if Chief Minister Banerjee ever steps in the proposed Kamtapur region in north Bengal.
KLO is a separatist group carrying out a movement for the formation of a separate Kamtapur state forked out of different districts in the northern part of West Bengal, Assam and Bihar and even the Jhapa district of Bhutan.
