Oct. 9: In a fierce gun-battle that lasted more than two hours, security forces killed two militants belonging to the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) in Jalpaiguri’s Kumargram area today. A head constable of the Central Reserve Police Force was also killed.

Two AK-47 assault rifles with 77 rounds of live ammunition were found on the militants. Police also recovered documents from them, which they believed could provide important leads on KLO activities. The dead were identified as Kamleshwar Roy, 25, and Bharat Singh (also known as Nripen Singh Barua), 27.

This is the second time in a month the security forces have engaged in a shootout with the militants in the Kumargram area, known to be a KLO stronghold. But the militants had all managed to escape in the September 17 encounter, which had taken place just a month after the Dhupguri killings.

The inspector-general of police (law and order), Chayan Mukherjee, said senior police officers were asked to camp in Kumargram and conduct raids on suspected militant hideouts.

Acting on a tip, the security forces — made up of district police, CRPF and police commandos — rushed to Pukhurigram village in Madhya Haldibari area of Kumargram police station, district superintendent of police Siddh Nath Gupta said on phone from Kumargram. The two militants were holed up in a house they had forced their way into.

At the time, a weekly market was going on in the village close to the border with Assam and Bhutan and it was teeming with people from surrounding villages. To avoid casualty, Gupta said, the police had cordoned off the area and asked the villagers to vacate the market.

As the security forces, led by Alipurduar’s additional superintendent of police R. Shivkumar, approached the house next to a primary school, the militants opened fire. The security forces retaliated.

“We had asked them to surrender, but they fired a volley at us from their assault rifles. We responded with retaliatory fire,’’ Gupta said. Under cover of firing, the militants slipped out of the house and hunkered down in a neighbouring paddy field, from where they fought the security forces for more than two hours.

During the encounter, CRPF personnel tossed grenades at the militants. Two of them got up and tried to run away, but were shot dead by the forces. A CRPF head constable, Talif Hussain, suffered bullet injuries and later died at Alipurduar Sub-divisional Hospital. Two more policemen suffered bullet injuries and were admitted to a hospital.

Gupta would not say how many rounds the forces had fired, but police sources put the number at 50. The sources said the security forces used mortar and grenades during the encounter.

The slain militants, members of the KLO’s action squads, were believed to have been trained by the Ulfa.

Poor list withdrawn

The government has cancelled the list of people living below the poverty line in 60 of the 341 blocks across Bengal.

Panchayat minister Surjya Kanta Mishra said many affluent families had got themselves recorded as living below the poverty line to garner government benefits.

“We had to cancel the list as there are some irregularities. That is why we have decided to go by the old list,” he said.