The city police, which has upped security cover in areas with large presence of people from the north east, had also planned to conduct a flag march through these localities, but gave up the idea. It instead held meetings with various leaders of the Muslim community to ensure the safety of the north-eastern people.
“We have increased patrolling in areas populated by the north east people. Several will also be picketed and manned by police to ensure their safety and monitor the situation” said Mr V .S. D’Souza, DCP (Intelligence),who has been appointed nodal officer to ensure the security of people from these states. “The police will also meet student associations, local community organisations and their members, to ensure the people's safety,” Mr D’Souza added.
Security agencies, restaurants take a hit
With people of the north-east returning home, city security agencies which employ guards from these states, are among the hardest hit. Most north east guards have told the agencies they will leave the city by Friday and the managements are finding they can do nothing to stop them. Mr. Raghavendra Reddy of Poojaya Security Services admits he has been finding it very difficult to handle his staff since the rumours began on Wednesday. "Most of our Assamese guards left out of fear. When we asked to them to stay , they only agreed to postpone their leaving to Friday morning. We have no choice now but to depend on local security personnel,” he said. General manager of Classic Protection Force, D. Ragavendra said most of his staff had left since Wednesday night.
"We have sent emails to all our clients asking them to bear with us since we are short staffed and have also given the jurisdictional police the list of the Assamese working with us and the areas they reside in, so that the guards can feel more secure. But the fears of their families back home is prompting them to leave the city,” he added. Construction sites, hotels and beauty parlours deserted: Work on most of the construction sites in the city came to a standstill after the north east construction workers fled the city overnight.
While many Chinese beauty parlours remained shut on Thursday, other parlours ran out of staff. Many small Chinese restaurants in the city did no business on Thursday as they had to shut down.