Aug. 16: Thousands of workers and students from the Northeast continued fleeing Bangalore and Hyderabad for the third day today, their panic fuelled by what state and central governments said were text-messaged “rumours” of revenge attacks for the recent Assam violence.
The Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh governments today went all out to issue safety assurances to the community, but hundreds, frightened by texted warning of attacks after August 20, still jumped into the earliest available trains to Calcutta and Guwahati.
In Delhi, home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde spoke of “strict action” against rumour-mongers and home secretary R.K. Singh said: “There is no threat to the people of the Northeast in any part of the country.”
The Karnataka government denied all reports of attacks on members of Bangalore’s 200,000-strong Northeast community but some people from the region spoke of being assaulted, threatened and warned to leave before August 20.
About 6,800 northeastern citizens left Bangalore on jam-packed trains yesterday, said Karnataka home minister R. Ashok, who had rushed to Bangalore City railway station to unsuccessfully urge the assembled hundreds to stay back.
Some 2,000 migrant workers from Assam employed in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam — mostly Bodos working as security guards in malls, IT campuses, and defence and corporate facilities — have fled since Tuesday. Reports of similar flight on a smaller scale came from Chennai and Pune, too.
Sarbeshwar Sahariah, a former president of the Hyderabad Assamese Association, said Saturday’s violent protests in Mumbai against the Assam clashes too had “scared” northeastern students and workers.
“For the past three days, Calcutta-bound trains such as the Howrah Express, Shalimar Express, East Coast Express and the Falaknuma Express have been running with 100-150 people crammed into a single compartment,” a railway manager in Secunderabad said.
Trying to allay the Northeast community’s fears, the Centre ran two special trains from Bangalore to Guwahati yesterday and two more today.
“Generally, about 300 tickets are booked for Guwahati (from Bangalore) which rose to 6,000 in the last two days,” railway minister Mukul Roy said, adding that it was “standard practice” to ply special trains during a rush.
Railway officials said the special trains were needed to avoid law-and-order problems arising out of overcrowding in coaches.
“Please don’t believe these rumours. The government is with you,” Karnataka chief minister Jagadish Shettar told some 400 members of the northeastern community outside his home today.
Shettar’s government has released three 24x7 hotline numbers for the registration of complaints about harassment or attacks.
These are: 080-22250999, 080-22942222 and 09480801020. The police have intensified patrols.