Siliguri: A senior Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) militant Shyamal Singha alias Anirban Rava was killed in an encounter with police near Mainaguri in North Bengal's Jalpaiguri district today (Jan, 2004), police said.

Inspector General of Police (North Bengal), Bhupinder Singh said police, acting on a tip-off, was waiting for the activist who had entered Dooars from Bhutan with four of his followers on December 14.

When the police asked him to surrender at the highway about half a km from Maingauri, Singha opened fire from his 0.56-pistol. Police retaliated killing Singha on the spot, the IGP said.

Singha was the third-ranking leader in KLO after Tom Adhikari and Miltan Burma and got arms training at a Bhutan camp and was involved in a number of killings and extortion cases.

He came to Dooars from Bhutan for raising fund for KLO. A letter recovered from his pocket revealed that he was supposed to serve a threat letter to a local businessman demanding a huge amount for the organisation's fund, Singh said.

Police was now combing neighbouring areas in search of the deceased's four followers, the IGP added.