Transfers led to intel failure

ALIPURDUAR: For the past month, police have received little intelligence on Kamtapur Liberation Organisation the outfit suspected to be behind Wednesday's blast in Alipurduar that left two people dead and 16 injured. The reason: mass transfer of experienced police officers who had built their intelligence network in the sensitive areas of North Bengal.
Sources said, in past one month more than 90% of officers were transferred from three KLO-dominated police stations of Jalpaiguri. "Kumargram, Samuktala and Alipurduar all three police stations are known as KLO strongholds. A large chunk of officers posted at these police stations were working in the area for the past few years and had built up an intelligence network to keep a close watch on the activities of the outfit. But recently, a majority of officers including the Alipurduar SDPO were shunted out. Those who came in had never handled KLO, leading to a major intelligence lapse. The outfit took advantage of the situation," said a senior police officer. Jalpaiguri SP Anand Kumar also admitted that a large chunk of officers had been transferred simultaneously.
Till Thursday night, police were clueless about which militants had planted the explosives in front of the supermarket in Alipurduar. Preliminary tests carried out by Central Forensic Science Laboratory has pointed to the use of ammonium nitrate as the explosive. A senior CFSL official said that the cycle was used as a carrier and the explosives were not packed inside.
"The modus operandi of using bicycle as the carrier hints at KLO involvement. The outfit has triggered four blasts at Barabhisha, Srirampore and Kamakhyaguri areas in past two years using a similar technique," said Anand Kumar.
A four-member team of CFSL led by Ashutosh Chakraborty visited the blast site on Thursday afternoon. They collected shrapnel samples of the blast. "The blast was so powerful that the shrapnel pierced the shutter of a nearby shop and made holes two inches in radius," said a CFSL expert.
Intelligence officers said the blast indicated that KLO had gained a toehold again in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar after the Bhutan setback of 2003. "KLO has continued recruitment drives in different parts of Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and even Dinajpur. They have also managed to recruit a large chunk of cadres from Dhubri and Kokrajhar in Assam," said an intelligence officer.
Over the past two years, KLO has managed to train four batches in Bangladesh, This was unknown to security agencies till Ramanath Roy was nabbed at Baxirhat in 2008. Roy, a native of Dhubri was the ninth batch cadre, who completed training in Bangladesh.
"KLO has also managed to build links with Myanmar and is getting safe shelter there," warned a police officer. "Since April 2008, KLO has sent several letters demanding money. Except Ratan Pandit, the secretary of Barabhisha traders association, none came forward to inform police. We suspect a few traders are paying up, strengthening their position," said a senior police officer.