Siliguri, Jan. 7: Kamtapur Liberation Organisation has taken the backseat, with its dreaded ally National Democratic Front of Boroland emerging as the latest “worry” for the police.

On the run from the security forces in Assam, Bodo militants appear to have found a safe haven in Sikkim and parts of north Bengal with a sizeable Bodo population.

Police have arrested three top NDFB leaders, including its vice-president Dhiren Boro, in Gangtok and Alipurduar, and seized a cache of arms from them over the past week.

They also picked up Bimal Mochari, reportedly harbouring Bodo militants, from Salugara on the outskirts of Siliguri last night.

This is the first time the police have arrested a person sheltering NDFB militants, Jalpaiguri superintendent of police Siddh Nath Gupta said.

Alarmed by heightened activities of the Bodo militants in north Bengal, the administration has sought a detailed report from the region’s police.

Inspector-general of police (north) Bhupinder Singh said they were concerned over the rise in activities of the Bodo militants in the region. “They are trying to woo the Bodo population in Kumargramduar, Kalchini and Samuktala. Their aim is to divide the local people along ethnic lines.”

Police and intelligence sources said NDFB had five camps in northwest and south Bhutan, besides the one in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. The Pana, Chamkuna and Pasakha camps in Bhutan are small, but frequented by the NDFB top brass.

The security forces in north Bengal are worried because the camps in Bhutan are not far from the Bengal border. The Bodo group has already been blamed for the 1998 kidnapping of a hotelier in Barobisha and 2002 attack on CRPF jawans in Bhutan ghat.

The news of the militant outfit’s skills in handling improvised explosive devices, including land mines, is already causing the police sleepless nights. Both Amarendra Chandra Daimari and Dhiren Boro, arrested from Samuktala and Gangtok, confessed to being “experts” in handling such devices.

“What is worrying us most is the NDFB’s ties with the KLO in the region. Unlike the KLO, the Bodo militants have access to deadly weapons including grenades and rocket-launchers,” a police officer said.

According to intelligence inputs, the NDFB is at odds with the Bodo Liberation Tigers and was trying to consolidate its position among the Bodos in Assam and Bengal.

The “proposed Bodoland” comprises Kokrajhar-Goalpara-Dhubri-Barpeta and some adjoining areas of Assam and parts of north Bengal which have a sizeable Bodo population.