Banned militant outfit, Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), active in Assam and West Bengal, has reportedly expressed its willingness to join the peace process, reports Northeast Now on December 3. According to official sources, KLO’s leader Jiban Singha alias Tamir Das had sent a letter to Assam Government expressing his desire for talks. Following this, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in a tweet said, “In Continuation with Govt of India’s efforts to bring lasting peace in the region, I welcome the desire of KLO leadership to join mainstream at an early date to resolve all issues through political dialogues. Govt of Assam would fully reciprocate this goodwill measure.” The militant outfit KLO, which had come into existence in 1995, has been demanding to carve out a separate Kamtapur state comprising six districts — Cooch Behar (or Koch Bihar), Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, North and South Dinajpur, and Malda of West Bengal and four adjoining districts of western Assam — Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Dhubri, and Goalpara.
Meanwhile, United Liberation Front of Asom – Independent (ULFA-I), in its bi-monthly mouthpiece, has asked the government to send political envoys and not military officials if it decides to discuss with the approval of its core demand of "restoration of Assam's sovereignty", reports The Times of India on December 3. The outfit further stated that Government of India (GoI) has tried to tame Ulfa with as many as 11 military operations since the first one – Operation Bajrang - in 1990.