Top Kamtapur liberation movement leader surrenders in Kolkata

Kolkata: In a major development, Kailash Koch, the general secretary of underground separatist group Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), surrendered before the West bengal police along with his wife and child on Thursday.

Koch arrived at the West Bengal police headquarters in Kolkata and surrendered before DGP Manoj Malviya, laying down his AK-47 rifle before him.

"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," Malviya said.

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 Jhapa district of Bhutan.

Speaking to mediapersons, Koch said he decided to surrender because of the inspiration appeal of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

"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 said.

Koch also said that after treading the path of armed revolution for so many years, he has realised that armed movement is never a solution.

"So, I appeal to the other activists of KLO to surrender their arms and return to the mainstream," he said.

Koch added that more KLO activists will surrender their arms 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 bloodbath if Chief Minister Banerjee ever steps in the proposed Kamtapur region in north Bengal.