Nagaon, Oct. 29: Police on Tuesday arrested two leaders of a teachers’ association, who allegedly went to a remote village to pay Rs 1 lakh to the anti-talks faction of the Karbi Longri NC Hills Liberation Front.

Prabin Hanse is the general secretary and Bharat Engti is assistant general secretary of the Karbi Anglong Primary School Teachers’ Association. They were elected only a month back.

The arrested duo were sent to judicial custody today.

According to the police, on Tuesday, Hanse and Engti went to Moisa Killing village under Dillai police station in an Alto when a police patrol intercepted them.

Karbi-dominated Moisa Killing is 40km from district headquarters, Diphu.

Hanse works in Dokmoka Lower Primary School in Dokmoka while Engti teaches at Baghmara Lower Primary School, Diphu.

“We don’t want to disclose anything about the case for the sake of investigation. As both of them are the leaders of an organisation, pressure can come from various quarters for their release,” said a Karbi Anglong police source.

Dillai police station officer-in-charge Suchil Dutta said steps were taken to catch the KLNLF cadres who had came to the spot to collect the money. But the rebels had already fled the spot.

“The outfit had demanded money from the arrested duo over phone. The two confessed during the interrogation that the money was collected from the schoolteachers in the hill district,” he said.

According to Dutta, a detailed investigation would be conducted to ascertain whe-ther the money was actually collected as donation from the schools or not.

Demand for money from government employees as “annual tax” is nothing new in the two hill districts of Assam.

In 2008, the police caught two junior engineers of Karbi Anglong DRDA while they were going to pay money to the Karbi militants.

“After the mother faction of the KLNLF surrendered, we thought extortion and harassment would end in Karbi Anglong. But that wish never turned into reality,” said Jagadish Saha, a Hamren businessman.