Guwahati/Bangalore/NEW DELHI : Reflecting a gradual return to normalcy after the panic exodus, people from the North-East headed back to Bangalore in special trains from Guwahati and the situation also eased on Monday in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
A spokesman for the Northeast Frontier Railway Nripen Bhattacharya said in Guwahati that three special trains had left for Bangalore on Sunday taking back in a phased manner those who had fled from the capital of Karnataka fearing attacks on them sparked by rumours in the wake of violence in Assam.
The official, however, could not give the exact number of people returning to Bangalore. Government officials said it would take two to three days before all of them returned to Bangalore and other cities like Pune and Chennai from where thousands of fear-stricken Northeasterners had fled.
After four days of panic-driven exodus of Northeasterners, the situation eased with police and railway officials saying it has stopped in Karnataka and reduced to a trickle in Tamil Nadu.
In contrast to the exodus of people from the Northeast, it was a normal situation in Bangalore which was turned into a virtual fortress amid tight security.
Upto 30,000 people had fled the country’s IT capital since late last week which abated yesterday after the government went overdrive to instil confidence in the NE people.
Meanwhile, New Delhi on Monday said it will share with Pakistan evidence on involvement of elements there to whip up communal sentiments even as a technical probe concluded that many doctored images were uploaded on social media networking sites in that country. The Indian government, meanwhile, stepped up its drive against “erring” portals, and ordered blocking of more than 250 websites in which morphed images and videos were uploaded that led to a scare and exodus of people of the northeast from Karnataka and some other states. Pakistan on its part rejected as “baseless and unfounded” India’s assertion on the involvement of elements there in posting morphed images on the internet in a bid to fan communal tensions and asked New Delhi to provide evidence in this regard.
Toll mounts to five: Meanwhile, the toll in violence on board the Guwahati-bound special train carrying northeast people has risen to five with the recovery of three more bodies, official sources said on Monday. “Two bodies were recovered from a place between Belakoba and Raninagar stations, while two more were found later at a place near Halakata, close to New Jalpaiguri station. Both places are in West Bengal,” they said. Meanwhile, a report from Kishanganj in Bihar said the body of a man was found close to the tracks near Manguraj railway station on West Bengal border under the Northeast Frontier Railway. NF Railway authorities are, however, not sure of the cause of the fight inside the special train that led to the deaths, besides injury to nine others, four of them seriously. Besides, it was not clear if the five were among those fleeing Bangalore fearing backlash after the Assam violence as the police and railway authorities remained tight-lipped pending an investigation. The sources, however, said unidentified persons attacked passengers travelling in the special train and also snatched their luggages and belongings. The two bodies found at Belaboka on Sunday were those of passengers hailing from Hialakandi in Assam. Superintendent of Police (Kishanganj) Ranjit Kumar Mishra said the body of the 35 year-old man was found this morning and it is being apprehended that he was thrown out by anti-socials from Bangalore-Guwahati special train late last night. An identity card was found in his pocket, besides a ticket for general class from Vishakhapatnam to Guwahati, he said. (PTI)