Exodus continues, North-East citizens flee due to threats

[Ray]

NE exodus continues, centre warns rumour mongers

PM appeals for communal peace and harmony

BANGALORE, AUG 16 (PTI): Fear-struck people from the North East continued to flee the city for the second day on Thursday as the Karnataka government assured them safety and launched confidence building measures, including police patrolling in areas largely inhabited by them.

A day after 6,800 people from the North East left the city by jam-packed trains, the main railway station here was chock-a-block with hundreds from the region eager to return to their homes, in the backdrop of rumours of an impending attack on them in the aftermath of the Assam violence.
"There is nothing to worry. The entire government is with you. We will protect the interests of the northeast people," Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar told representatives of organisations of people from the region at his official residence.
Speaking to reporters after chairing a high-level meeting, Mr. Shettar admitted there have been some stray incidents (against members of the community) but the police could not act as there had not been any complaints.
Asked to elaborate on these "stray incidents", Home Minister and Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka intervened to say that it's a "sensitive issue" and could not be divulged as the matter concerns the entire country and also different states as he named Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Ashoka said 6,800 people from the North East left Bangalore last night by special trains.
In Delhi, the Centre said there was no threat to anyone from the region living anywhere in the country and warned of strict action against rumour mongers.
"If rumours are spread, strict action will be taken against those who indulge in such activities," Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters.
Concerned over the development, the Prime Minister spoke last night to Shettar who assured him that steps were being taken to give protection to the people from the north east.
Besides the Prime Minister, Shinde and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi also spoke to Shettar on the issue.
Extra trains to Assam have been pressed into service to help people who wanted to leave Karnataka, Shinde said, asserting that the situation in the state was peaceful.
On reports that people from the North East were attacked in other parts of the country, Home Secretary RK Singh said in Delhi, "There is no threat to the people of the northeast in any part of the country."

PM for peace at all cost
Decrying rumours about attacks on people from northeast living in other states, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today made an appeal to remain vigilant and maintain peace at any cost.
"We must work together to ensure that all people from other states do not feel threatened by rumour mongering and SMSes. We have to maintain peace at any cost," Singh said at an Iftaar hosted by him when asked about the exodus of people hailing from northeast from Karanataka.
Singh said he had spoken to Karnataka Chief Minister Jagdish Shettar and Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and was constantly in touch with Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. He said he was yet to speak with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Reddy.
"We have to maintain communal harmony. We have to be vigilant," Singh said to a question on whether he was concerned about the effects of Assam violence spreading to other states.
"All political parties must work together to give a feeling of confidence to all affected people," he said.

Mumbai, Pune, Nashik
MUMBAI, AUG 16 (IANS): People from Assam and other northeast states are fleeing to their home states after some of them were targeted by miscreants in Maharashtra in the past few days, officials said Thursday.
Since early this week, an estimated 1,500 north eastern people have returned home from Mumbai, Pune and Nashik.
While over 300 Assamese left early Thursday from Pune and Nashik each, another 400 left from Mumbai Wednesday.
Pune Assistant Commissioner of Police Sanjeev Singhal said there was no cause for people from the northeast to leave.
"They are apparently influenced by some MMSes being circulated. We have appealed to their community leaders not to panic and avoid forwarding such MMSes," Singhal said.
He spoke after meeting representatives of the people from the northeast in the city.

Insidious SMSs fuel panic
NEW DELHI/BANGALORE (AGENCIES): Some students in Bangalore who belong to the North East have reported receiving threatening text messages. Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said intelligence officials are trying to identify the senders of these messages, as well as those spreading rumours of attacks against different communities.
Doctored photos on social media are also being circulated as well as chain e-mails, say sources, resulting in tension.
Sources have, meanwhile, said that the government has asked security agencies to monitor social websites for rumours that could spread panic among those from North East.

Thirteen arrested in Pune
PUNE, AUG 16 (AGENCIES): Thirteen people were arrested for allegedly beating up Northeastern students in Pune last week. The Pune police met members of the Muslim community urging them to disregard a controversial MMS clip that has been doing the rounds.
Police say the clip is doctored and aimed at creating communal tension. A case has been filed against unknown persons for circulating it. Security is being stepped up at colleges in the city.
Reports said that students and working professionals from the North East were scared to venture out of their homes and had appealed to the police to provide the protection.
The students also formed an association, the police said.
There are almost 10,000 North Eastern students and professionals in Pune.

NE exodus continues, centre warns rumour mongers

The media is only informing of the exodus from Banglore.

There are also passing information that it is happening in South and West India.

I googled and while all had Bangalore being the sole area of exodus, this NE paper gives some more details.

All one can say instead of the usual nonsense of appealing to stay calm and maintain harmony, it is time to act and catch the culprits and give them an exemplary punishment so that it does not happen again.

One commentator (I think he was ex RAW) on a TV debate drew the attention that all places where the exodus is happening is basically where terrorist blasts have occurred earlier.

 

[ani82v]

Media and Govt is leaving no stone unturned in saying that they are leaving because of rumors. I read it in today's Hindi news papers that the residents of Jigani, Bangalore, where the Assamese concentration is higher, have been attacked when they were at home. Also, some of them were assaulted near Lal Baugh area. I don't think they have filed police complaint. Nor these incidents were reported in the media.

They said they were leaving because they know that Police can not protect everyone of them all the time.

With such a wide spread threat, I don't think only administration can handle this crisis and its time bystanders get involved.

 

[hit&run]

In Assam, a sea of people return home

In Assam, a sea of people return home | NDTV.com

Guwahati: Hundreds of North-East citizens arrived in Guwahati this morning after a long journey from cities in the south like Hyderabad and Bangalore. At Guwahati station, there is a sea of people; security guards, hotel and office boys, many of whom don't know when they will go back.

"I was in Bangalore for nine months. I won't go back, even if I don't get any work in Assam," says Albert, one of the boys. "We have the right to stay to anywhere in the country. What is happening is not right," says another.

Over the last week, cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune have been on edge with their large North Eastern communities feeling insecure about their safety. In the last month, nearly 80 people have died in ethnic violence in Assam and doctored MMS-es and text messages have infected other states, warning that students and professionals from the North East will be attacked.

At the station, a few of those who have returned say the threats were real and not perceived. "They threatened us directly. Not on the phone. They told us to leave. No one in the police helped," revealed a man who returned from Bangalore.

Most of these boys are from remote parts of Assam--Lakhimpur, Majuli, Sibsagar. For many the lack of employment opportunities in Assam means staying back is not an option. "When it calms down, we will have to go back. Don't know how long we will stay here because we have to think of the future," says Abhijit.

So while there are fewer people reaching railway stations in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune, to go back home to the North East today, the ones who left say they had no other choice.

The government in the meanwhile has promised to track down those who triggered panic in the North-Eastern community in Bangalore and other cities by sending out threatening and incendiary messages and has banned bulk SMSes and MMSes for the next 15 days.

............................................................

Wow Indians have no home in their own country. Muslims have made them first run from their native states and now every other state they live to work or work to live.

Like a movie dialogue. ''Jo Ek bar Bhagtey hai wo sari Zindagi Bhagtey rehtey hai''. Big LoL at Indians.

 

[Tolaha]

Re: In Assam, a sea of people return home

Really sad, humiliating and disgusting times in our country! Feel worse when I read those reports on North East folks leaving Bangalore! They have been here for so long and had assimilated so well! The more I read, the worse I feel! Bad days!

 

[Yusuf]

Psyjihad against NE people may recreate forgotten barriers

In the psyjihad directed against the people from north-east, one sees the beginning of an insidious attempt to re-create the mental divide and drive a new wedge, says B Raman

What we have been seeing since May, 2012, is a proxy jihad through the Internet and modern means of communications such as the cell phone and I-pad, being waged by a new generation of unidentified IT-savvy jihadis.

It started in the Rakhine state of Myanmar, following violent clashes between some Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, who are considered as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The clashes resulted in nearly 80 fatalities from both communities and the internal displacement of a large number of Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims.

Following these clashes, a group of as yet unidentified Islamic elements, possibly based in the Myanmar-Bangladesh-India region, started a vicious campaign through the Internet and new social media sites for the demonisation of the Myanmar government and for promoting Islamic solidarity.

President Thein Sein of Myanmar was reported to have told a delegation of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, which visited Myanmar last week, that through the Internet and its social media sites, these elements circulated highly exaggerated reports of what they termed a 'genocide of Muslims' in Myanmar, with the help of morphed pictures of violent incidents in other countries.

This psyjihad was meant to destabilise not only Myanmar but also the Sheikh Hasina [ Images ] government of Bangladesh, which has refused to allow the Rohingyas to enter Bangladesh and use it as a base for their destabilisation operations in Myanmar.

One noticed a similar psyjihad being waged in India [ Images ] through the Internet and social media sites by a group of unidentified Muslim extremists after the outbreak of violent clashes between some Bodos and illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in Kokrajhar and other Bodo areas of Assam in July.

These elements used the Internet and social media sites for the dissemination of exaggerated accounts of the violence in Assam and for re-circulating the fabricated psyjihad material produced by or on behalf of the Rohingyas.

These sought to inflame the passions of impressionable Muslims in different parts of India during the holy fasting period of Ramzan. It resulted in incidents of shocking violence and vandalisation by some Muslims during and after a public meeting held in the Azad Maidan of Mumbai [ Images ] on August 5 to protest against the violent incidents in Assam and Myanmar.

Some Muslims incited to violence by the psyjihad material and the highly emotional speeches attacked policemen, including women members of the police, vandalised a memorial, attacked sections of the media and burnt down some media vehicles. While the anger of such incited Muslim extremist mobs against the police is nothing unusual, its anger against the media was.

Its rage against sections of the media was due to the fact that, in its view, the media did not give sufficient publicity to the psyjihad material produced by or on behalf of the Rohingyas.

After the Mumbai incident, which has been condemned by many leaders of the Muslim community, these unidentified elements have been directing their psyjihad against people from the north-east, who have been working in Pune, Bengaluru [ Images ], Hyderabad and Chennai in order to create feelings of insecurity in their minds and make them go back home.

There is an underlying message in this new phase of psyjihad that is directed at people from the north-east living and working in south India and Pune. The message is: "If the government does not regularise the illegal immigration of Bangladeshis to north-east, we will not allow people from the north-east to migrate to work in other parts of India."

One has to note that the psyjihad directed at the people from north-east is not based on their religion. Many of them are Christians and not Hindus. It is based on their right to migrate to other parts of India.

As a result of the feelings of insecurity created in the minds of people from the north-East in south India, many have already left for their homes, creating the danger of a fresh wave of communal violence when the displaced people of the north-east reach homr with their tales of how they were intimidated, resulting in their decision to come back home.

During the last 20 years, the mental divide between the people of north-east and those in the rest of India -- that had given rise to different insurgencies -- had disappeared. The insurgencies started losing public support and a large number of youngsters from the north-east had started identifying themselves with the rest of India.

Many of them migrated to other parts of India in search of jobs. They were welcomed by people in other parts of India. A process of natural integration between the people of north-east and other parts of India began.

In the psyjihad directed against the people from north-east, one sees the beginning of an insidious attempt to re-create the mental divide and drive a new wedge.

Unfortunately, one does not have the impression that our intelligence agencies and police have been able to keep pace with the evolution of the psyjihad being waged through the Internet, mobile phones and I-pads. One does not see signs of any coherent and co-ordinated attempt to counter and neutralise it, identify the elements behind this psyjihad and act against them firmly under the laws of the land.

In addition to neutralising this psyjihad, it is important to initiate urgent measures to restore the sense of security of the people from north-east by interacting with them continuously and vigorously and by providing them additional protection. The civil society too has an important role in this matter. This is the time to further strengthen our bonds of solidarity with them and reassure them that the civil society will stand by them.

All political parties should resist the urge, which could prove suicidal for the nation, to exploit these developments for their partisan advantage. This is the time for everybody to come together and unite against the new breed of extremists, who can turn out to be more dangerous than those of the past, who relied on improvised explosive devices for destabilising us.

Psyjihad against NE people may recreate forgotten barriers - Rediff.com India News

 

[KS]

Re: Psyjihad against NE people may recreate forgotten barriers

The thing to worry is what will all these deprived, jobless, frustrated and angry refugees from different parts of country do when they reach North East ? Who will they take their anger upon ? It is the Bangladeshi Muslim there and then the Indian state if it tries to intervene in the ensuing fracas.

Nightmare all over and the protesting muslims in various parts of India have done a great disservice to their BD bretheren in NE and have put them in harms way.

 

[sayareakd]

Re: Psyjihad against NE people may recreate forgotten barriers

bulk SMS and photoshop pics were send from Pakistan, GOI should barred massages from some countries during such time. Specially bulk ones.

 

[praneetbajpaie]

whatever be the outcome of the situation or the reasons why this happened, successive Governments have failed to stabilize the North eastern region, especially Manipur, Nagaland and Assam. No wonder people from that region feel alienated. It's about time the Government did something about the situation or we will have another Kashmir in our hands if not already.

 

[Hari Sud]

Well the Pakistanis won the first the cyber war and gained the psychological advantage. North east people began to flee. The advantage was lost when the truth was discovered. The North East people are now returning back. Hence Pakistani advantage has turned into disadvantage as nobody in the future would believe future manufactured news and photos.

They Pakis have to wait for Indian reply. One of these days they may wake up finding all of their sites - good or bad compromised. Worst, their power grids compromised with Indians Turning off their lights at will. Indian programmers have the capability to do that. They do not need government of India permission to do that. The best GOI could say is that these are non state actors. The latter being the standard Pakistani reply in the past, now used against them.

 

[Kesang]

Assam Asks Railway to Help People Go Back

Assam has asked Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) to arrange special trains to allow northeastern people who had fled other states fearing attacks to return, said an official Wednesday. "We have received a request from the Assam government to run special trains to Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and others states from September so that the people, who had fled these states in the past few days, can return,"NFR Chief Public Relations Officer S. Hajong told. "But it has not been finalised as to whenNFR will run these trains," said Hajong.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister R.Ashoka is likely to visit Assam, Manipur and Nagaland to assure those who had fled that his state was safe and they should return, an official source said. At least eight special trains have arrived in Assam in the past few days carrying thousands of northeastern people who were studying or working in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and other states. The mass exodus started Aug 15over fears of a backlash due to the Assam communal violence, after people from the northeast in southern states received threatening SMSes and MMSes telling them to leave before Aug 20 or face attacks.
Assam had Aug 18 sent four ministers to Hyderabad and Bangalore to talk to the Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka governments and the northeastern people living there. Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland too had sent ministerial teams to the southern states to ease the situation and stop the exodus. Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have already assured that people, who had left their jobs due to the rumours, will be reinstated. While most of the people expressed their desire to return to their place of study or work, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told officials, including zila and panchayat members, to persuade them to return.


Assam Asks Railway to Help People Go Back | Northeast Today

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All is going to be well.:thumb:

 

[Tolaha]

Great news!

And once all this gets fixed up and back to normal, state governments should develop a plan to prevent anything like this from ever happening again. This was a disgraceful episode and the government/media/police should ensure its the last one!

 

[Tolaha]

BBC News - North-east Indian migrants returning to Bangalore

Hundreds of people from north-east India, who had fled the southern city of Bangalore fearing reprisal attacks in recent days, have started returning. :high5:

Officials say the situation in the city and other parts of Karnataka state is now normal.

They blamed the exodus of more than 20,000 people on "rumours" linked to clashes in north-eastern Assam state.

After the Assam violence, threatening messages were sent to migrant workers and students from the north-east.

Panic set in and people began fleeing the south and west after a Tibetan was knifed by an unidentified attacker in the city of Mysore. Police say they believe the attackers mistook him to be from Assam.

"They are all slowly coming back. Bangalore is normal. We have taken all measures to maintain peace," additional commissioner of police Sunil Kumar told the BBC.

He said 22 people had been arrested for "rumour-mongering, assaulting and threatening" students from the north-east and riot police have been deployed in sensitive areas of the city where north-easterners live.

North-eastern residents of Bangalore said the state government's confidence building measures, including holding peace meetings with Muslim leaders, had helped maintain peace.

 

[Tolaha]

'Come home, we are with you,' Bangalore urges North Easterners | NDTV.com


Bangalore has seen a flurry of meetings talking of harmony, peace and the need for mutual understanding. The Karnataka government has been making the best of attempts to lay to rest the rumours that saw thousands of people from the North-East leave the city.

"I met the honorable Chief Minister. I explained all the details about security arrangement. I hope we are one nation. We are all Indians. Banglore is a safe place," said Karnataka's Home Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, R Ashoka.

"I personally met some friends of Assam, students and working, they are willing to go. I'm confident about that," he added.

Mr Ashoka also visited the railway station this weekend, going the whole way to spread the message that those who left should come back to Bangalore.

And it's not just the government - faced with the mass departure, the residents of Bangalore too have been giving reassuring messages to those who have left.

"North East is one of the parts of our body. I am standing here, like India. This is north east, this is south east - we can't hurt any of our body parts," said a resident.

"They can't live with fear forever, you know, we are trying to encourage them to be back. This is their place, their country and it is their fundamental right, as a college, as faculty members, as a Principal, we are all trying to bring them back and they have to stay here, as they are provided with all things in the college," said another.

However, despite these efforts, there really has been no reverse migration yet. It is a long train ride from Guwahati to Bangalore - and the Karnataka government hopes that in a while people will find the confidence to return.

 

[Oracle]

I am starting to like R. Ashoka. Very pro-active. States like these progress.

 

[Kesang]

Special Guwahati-Bangalore Train to Run Sep 1

A special train from Guwahati to Bangalore will run Sep 1 to help people from the northeast return to their places of study or work in southern states after their mass exodus over fear of attacks. The train, with 14 sleeper class coaches, will leave Guwahati railway station at 1.15 p.m. Saturday, said a Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) official Wednesday. The train service is being started after the Assam government asked the railways to help thousands of students and workers who had arrived home from Bangalore, Hyderabad and other southern cities following rumours of a backlash over the ethnic clashes in Assam.
A railway official said they might run more such trains if there was a demand. KarnatakaDeputy Chief Minister R. Ashoka visited Assam and Manipur Aug 25-26 to assure northeastern states of the security in Bangalore and requested the people to return and resume their work and studies. Ashoka asked Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to arrange for special trains to facilitatethe return of the people to Bangalore and other places.
-IANS


Special Guwahati-Bangalore Train to Run Sep 1 | Northeast Today

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All is well now.:thumb:

 

[ani82v]

I am starting to like R. Ashoka. Very pro-active. States like these progress.

He appears to be the only one who went there to appeal people to come back.
There is another angle, it helps his party politically to align its image as protector of persecuted. For ruling party in other states, it makes more political sense for them to stay silent. In the end, its all politics no matter how we want to view them.

 

[Tolaha]

Welcome back folks!

 

[Tolaha]

The Hindu : News / National : From Assam, the trains now head home

A special train, with about 300 youths from Assam, left Guwahati for Bangalore on Saturday. They included not just those who fled the garden city in mid-August and returned home in the wake of adverse rumours, but also 32 new workers from Gogamukh in upper Assam's Dhemaji district. They have been hired to work as construction workers in Bangalore.

The train was flagged off by Assam's Agriculture Minister Nilamani Sen Deka and Environment and Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain around 2.40 p.m. and sweets were distributed.. The train was scheduled to leave at 1.15 p.m., but there was some delay owing to the addition of a general coach, as some youths came with the impression that they do not require reservation to board the train. Besides two general coaches, the train has 17 sleeper coaches. Reservation charts pasted on the coaches showed that most of the reservations were made by passengers from stations originating beyond Assam.

Monoj Bhuyan from a village near Gogamukh told The Hindu that he decided to go to the southern city as he was finding it difficult to make both ends meet by working as a daily wage earner in his village. His family had only one-and-half bigha of land and cannot produce enough grains to last for the whole year. "A number of youths from my village work in Bangalore and earn regularly. So I decided to go there to earn money," he said.

Assurance of safety

Mitu Nath of Tezpur, a B.Com graduate from Darrang College in northern Assam's Sonitpur district, who has been working as front office assistant in a software company in Bangalore, said he was happy to return to work. "My employer spoke to me over the phone at least six times since I returned on August 17 and asked me to come back and promised that we will be safe in Bangalore and there was nothing to worry."

Most of the returnees shared same information about their employer asking them to return without any fear and assuring them of all assistance.

Rohit Basumtary and his wife Bhumika Basumatary were also eager to return to their work place that is about two-and-half-hour drive from Bangalore. While Rohit has been working as a security guard for the past nine years, his wife was employed in a garment company for the past three years. After their return from Bangalore on August 17, the couple, however, could not go to Rohit's home in Bijni in Chirang district, as the situation was tense there and they stayed at his in-law's residence at Udalguri. The couple said their employers asked them to return, saying they have nothing to worry about their job and safety.

Mr. Hussain said a team of nine Government Railway Police, (GRP) led by Deputy Superintendent of Police N. Ali, and 23 personnel of the Railway Protection Force would provide security during the train's entire journey.

Both the Ministers said a beginning had been made by the 300 youths. Their journey would send a positive message to others who had returned and give them the confidence to go back to their places of work at the earliest.

 

[average american]

All of this seems kind of strange to an american, if some one threaten my home I would be along with all my neighbors on the front porch with a deer rifle, shot gun and few hand guns,few thousand rounds of ammunition, it would like the first day of hunting season. Or like the old day put up a fort and then declare open season on whom ever was giving us trouble. I would prob call in a few relatives that would like that kind of thing. I am going to have to admit I dont understand you people at all.

 

[Oracle]

All of this seems kind of strange to an american, if some one threaten my home I would be along with all my neighbors on the front porch with a deer rifle, shot gun and few hand guns, like the first day of hunting season. Or like the old day put up a fort and then declare open season on whom ever was giving us trouble. I would prob call in a few relatives that would like that kind of thing.

We don't have gung ho gun control. And most people are law abiding citizens, and leave things for the police and courts to decide.