The Kamtapuri Liberation Organisation was already in the throes of a terminal disease before it got to bite the Royal Bhutan Army bullets. The organisation, otherwise sustained by the United Liberation Front of Assam, had developed fissures in its ranks, with top leaders like Tom Adhikari and Milton Burma baying for the blood of chief Jeevan Singh. The immediate provocation was an ’injudicious’ division of a Rs-4000000 ransom booty recently extracted from a Mynaguri businessman. Like many such outfits operating in the North East, money has become the scourge, top KLO leaders have revealed to the police. Jeevan’s right-hand man, Tom Adhikari said, "Jeevan had escaped with Rs 4 million wheedled out from the relatives of the abducted businessman." Even as Jeevan fled with the money to Bangladesh, the rank and file was left with the impression that Tom, Milton and other senior leaders had shared the booty. Tom is known to have told the police. He further added, "With money beginning to play a role in the KLO, ideology had taken a backseat, which had prompted us to return to the mainstream as an armed movement could not have been run by dishonest men."
That’s never stopped them before |