Rumours Drive Over 5,000 North-East People Out of Bangalore

Bangalore, Aug 16 (DHNS): Panic triggered by wild rumours of impending violence sparked a heavy exodus of people of North-Eastern origin living in the City, to their home states, on Wednesday.

Thousands of people packed the City railway station on Wednesday night to catch the earliest available trains to leave the City. Despite appeals by the police to ignore the rumours, the rush to get back home was unabated.

As the buzz of large-scale violence after the period of Ramzan took hold during the day, sale of train and flight tickets skyrocketed. So heavy was the rush at the railway station that Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka rushed to talk to the passengers.

Officials of the Bangalore Railway division who were stunned to discover 4,793 tickets being booked on a single day scrambled to organise two special trains departing on Wednesday night to Guwahati to accommodate them.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde spoke to Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, asking him to reassure the North-Eastern community in Bangalore.

The two special trains were in addition to the regular train leaving for Guwahati on the same night. One was an 18-coach special, while the other was a 19-coach special. Divisional Railway Manager Anil Kumar Agarwal said they had no other option in view of the heavy bookings.

More trains

“We do not know what we will do if the same thing continues tomorrow. We are trying to get coaches and there is a possibility that we may schedule more trains,” he said.

At a hurriedly-convened press briefing on Wednesday evening, in-charge Director General and Inspector General of Police, Lalrokhuma Pachau, appealed to people from north-eastern states not to leave the City, and sought to dispel their fears.

Pachau attributed the fears over reports of planned scale violence against the community after August 20, as mere intimidation and termed it baseless rumour-mongering.

 “We have received reports that there has been a fear psychosis created in the North-East community based on rumours. But I assure them that not even a single such incident has been reported in the city till now. I appeal to them not to heed to any rumours and leave the city,” Pachau said.

Police Commissioner B G Jyothi Prakash Mirji said patrolling and security had been intensified in sensitive areas.

“We have instituted an enquiry into the source of these rumours and will take stern action if found. Even I will supervise the night rounds and patrolling. We assure the community that we would protect them in any eventuality. But we foresee no such eventuality.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too had spoken to the Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on Sunday to protect the considerable population of North-Eastern origin in the state.
None of the assurances however seemed to have worked.

Several people of North Eastern origin that this paper refused to be named  paper but confirmed being threatened over the last couple of days. A native of a northeastern state who works at Bengaluru International Airport claimed that he was verbally threatened by a passerby when he was returning home from work a few days ago. The stranger ran into him at Neelasandra and asked him to “leave” Bangalore.

“He apparently mistook me for an Assamese and said I should leave the city immediately. Things will otherwise be difficult,” he said. One of his friends also received a similar threat. “A man walked up to my friend and asked him to go away immediately. Else, his head will be chopped off.”

Shettar convenes high-level meet as NE people flee Bangalore

Bangalore, Aug 16 (PTI): As over 5,000 panic-stricken people from North Eastern states fled the city after rumours of attacks targeting the community spread, Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar is holding a high-level meeting today to tackle the situation.

Two Assam-bound special trains were operated late last night in addition to the regular service to clear the sudden rush of passengers triggered by the rumours in the wake of some attacks on North Eastern people in some parts of the country in the Assam violence backlash.

The stabbing of a Tibetan student by two motorcycle-borne men in Mysore on August 14 added fuel to the fears of the North Eastern people whom the Government and Police are trying to convince that they are safe in the state.

However, State DGP Lalrokhuma Pachuau, who himself is from North Eastern state of Manipur, told PTI today that the exact number of people who fled the city was not known as many bound for Guwahati were regular passengers, and not those leaving following the rumours.

Concerned over the development, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself spoke last night to Shettar who assured him that steps were being taken to give protection to the people from the North East.

Besides Singh, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi also spoke to Shettar on the issue.

Sources in the Chief Minister's Office said that Shettar would today discuss with the officials the exodus and find solutions to tide over the fresh problem.

A small group of people at the railway station said, "We are expecting the railway authorities to make an announcement of arranging special trains to Guwahati. We want to be with our families in Assam. We have been informed that some people are planning to attack us as our community was attacked in Mumbai and other parts of the country.

"We do not want to take any risk as nobody comes to our rescue when we are attacked," Monica and others from her region said in unison as they waited at the railway station this morning.

Railway officials had said yesterday that they had sold more than 5000 tickets for northeast destinations.

Members belonging to various organisations, including RSS, visited the railway station and tried to convince the fleeing people that no violence would be perpetrated against them and Karnataka was much safer than Assam.

Pachuau dismissed as baseless the rumours that people from the North East might be targeted and said not a single case of assault or verbal threat against them had been reported in the state. A probe was on into the "wild rumours", he added.

"The situation is completely peaceful. Not even a single incident related to the north-east people has been reported in the whole state," Pachau said.

Pachau said rumours were spread by word of mouth, text messages (SMS) and social networking sites such as FaceBook.

He averred that mischievous elements must have spread rumours, in the backdrop of Kokrajhar incidents in Assam and the violence in Mumbai that followed a few days later.
Railway sources said they might operate additional bogies on today's train to Guwahati if required.

A large number of people from the northeast, including students, reside in Karnataka, particularly in Bangalore where they are employed in call centres, hotels, beauty parlours and private security services, among others.

Bangalore cops scotch rumours as northeast students flee

Bangalore, Aug 16 (IANS): Police Thursday scotched rumours that students from northeastern region living in the city would be attacked in retaliation for the ethnic violence in Assam, even as over 5,000 of them fled to Guwahati by special trains late Wednesday and in the early hours.

"We are assuring students and others from northeastern states residing in Bangalore or other parts of Karnataka that they are safe. They need not rush back to their homes fearing attacks as rumoured by unscrupulous elements," Bangalore Deputy Commissioner of Police (intelligence) Vincent S. D'Souza told IANS.

Deputy Chief Minister R. Ashoka, who holds the home portfolio, directed police to use all communication modes to assure the people from the northeast that they were safe and would be given full protection against any attack.

"We are using SMS, Facebook, Twitter, television channels, radio and other media to spike the rumours. We assure the people from the northeast, especially students in Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore and other cities, not to believe in rumours and fear any attack on them," D'Souza said.

Wild rumours have been spreading, causing panic, that the people from the northeast region would be attacked after the Id-ul-Fitr August 20 to avenge the Assam violence, in which 74 lives were lost.

"We had to scramble to arrange at a short notice two special trains of 20-22 coaches each around midnight to Guwahati in addition to the daily Bangalore-Guwahati Express and Bangalore-Howrah Express as a whopping 6,000 unreserved tickets were sold since Wednesday afternoon at booking counters in city railway station," South Western Railway spokesman Suvankar Biswas told IANS.

Since regular trains to Howrah and Guwahati were fully booked for over a week due to holidays since Wednesday till Monday, all those who were desperate to leave the city were forced to buy unreserved tickets and board the first available train to Assam.

"Even those who could not get reservation to Howrah or Guwahati are opting to buy tickets up to Chennai so as to catch any northeast-bound trains from there. This is the first time we are seeing such a big surge in sale of tickets for these trains on a single day - that too in off-season," Biswas said.
The sudden overcrowding of platforms late Wednesday and frantic calls by railway officials for deployment of additional personnel from the Railway Protection Force and city police to prevent any untoward incident forced even the deputy chief minister to rush to the city station and plead with the frenzied students to desist from leaving the city.

"We are taking all measures to ensure people's safety across the state and protect them from being attacked or harmed by anyone. Security of citizens is our foremost duty," Director General of Police Lalrokhuma Pachau told reporters here.
"We request all, including the media, to allay fears of attacks on students from the northeast region or any part of the country and report to the nearest police station on rumour-mongers who are trying to spread fear," he added.

In a related development, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar assured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that people, especially students from the northeast, would be given protection to ensure their safety and security.

"The assurance was given when Singh called Shettar late Wednesday to express concern over unconfirmed reports of attack on students of the northeast in Bangalore and Mysore since Tuesday," an official from the Chief Minister's Office said.