Basunia (right) and Singh after their arrest. Picture by Ujjwal Boral.

Kumargramduar (Alipurduar), Oct. 28: Two top militants of Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), wanted for murder and abduction, have been arrested in Jalpaiguri district.

?We arrested Parimal Basunia alias Pramod Das and Pahar Singh alias Batrish Das of Kumargramduar yesterday. Both were trained at the Piping camp in Bhutan,? Rahul Srivastav, the additional superintendent of police, Alipurduar, told reporters today.

?We had information that Singh was hiding in Guwahati and that he had set up a control room from where he was maintaining contact with the Ulfa,? Srivastav said.

A team led by Pankaj Thapa, the officer-in-charge of Samuktala police station, reached Guwahati yesterday morning and went to the building where Singh was supposed to be lying low.

Thapa and the other personnel, all in disguise, called out to the militant, known in local circles as ?Mama?. Singh came out and was immediately surrounded by the police.

Before Operation All Clear last December, Singh reportedly used to collect money and rations from Assam and Bengal and transport them to camps in Bhutan.

?We also had information that Basunia was moving around in places like Gossaigaon, Kokrajhar, and Golokganj in Assam and Baxirhat and Toofanganj on the Assam-Bengal border,? Srivastav said.

?According to our sources, Basunia entered a house in Kumargramduar?s Bittibari area last night. Police instantly surrounded the house and nabbed him,? he said.

Basunia confessed during interrogation that he had killed Pranesh Pal, a CPM leader from Kumargramduar, in May 2000. He was also part of a group that murdered five CPM workers in Dhupguri in August 2003 and was involved in the murder of Rohini Adhikari, an RSP leader of Kumargram, in October 2001.

Basunia also had a hand in the kidnapping of Gopal Debnath, a businessman from Cooch Behar?s Nishiganj area, and was wanted for a number of crimes in Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar. He, along with seven militants, managed to give police the slip during an encounter on the banks of Rydak river in September 2002.

Basunia and Singh came to Chengmari in Kumargram after Operation Flushout. Basunia was acting as the chief of the eastern front of the KLO, which is active in the eastern Dooars, for the past nine months. He is close to KLO chief Jeevan Singh, who continues to elude the police.

A top police official said Basunia and Singh had recruited 24 youths from Assam?s Sarfang area for training in Bhutan. The recruits were chosen from areas with a Rajbangshi majority.

Police also have information that two camps have been set up in Bhutan?s Galangfu area. Singh had recently planned to enter Bhutan from Bangladesh and train the new recruits.

The official added: ?We are worried because the KLO looks to be regrouping. It will be tough to bring the militants under control because they have learnt from their previous mistakes.?

The Alipurduar subdivisional judicial magistrate has remanded Basunia and Singh in police custody for 10 days.