No threat to north eastern people anywhere in India: Home Secy

[1]

With people from north east in panic following rumours of attacks, Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh on Thursday said there was no threat to anyone from the region living anywhere in the country and termed the reports of violence as rumours.

"There is no threat to the people of the north east in any part of the country," Singh told agencies here reacting to reports that people from the region were attacked in other parts of the country.

On reports of mass exodus of people from the north east living in Bangalore, Singh said he had spoken to the Chief Secretary and Director General of Karnataka Police and they had informed him that there was no incident of attack on anyone from the region anywhere in the state.

"Last night when I got an information that some people from Assam were under threat in Karnataka, I rang up the DGP and checked up with him... There is nothing.''

"When people thronged the (Bengaluru) railway station to go to the north east, the Home Minister of Karnataka himself went there and told them that there is nothing. So the rumour mongering has to be stopped. Some people are spreading rumours," he said.

The Home Secretary said there was just one incident of attack on people from the north east in Pune but those involved in that incident were caught immediately.

Gripped by panic following rumours of attack on some of their compatriots, about 5,000 people of north eastern states, including students, yesterday prepared to return to their hometowns even as Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar assured them of security.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde spoke to Shettar last night and were understood to have asked him to ensure the safety of people from the region in the state.

The Bengaluru City railway station was flooded with north eastern people wanting to board available trains as rumours spread that some people from the state had been subjected to attacks in the city, which was promptly denied by the state police.