Thousands of Indians from the country’s northeast fled southern cities yesterday after rumours they would be attacked by Muslims in reprisal for recent ethnic violence, officials said.
Railway officials said they had put on extra trains from Bangalore to the northeastern state of Assam to accommodate a spike in demand after 6,000 tickets were sold since Wednesday evening.
People arriving in Assam’s main city of Guwahati also told local TV they had taken last-minute decisions to flee Hyderabad and the southern state of Kerala.
“We are investigating the source of these rumours and who is behind them,” Bangalore deputy commissioner of police Vincent S. D’Souza said.
“Mischief-mongers and vested interests are misusing social media, mobile and the Internet to spread these rumours and create panic in the people of the northeastern region,” he added.
Three weeks of clashes in Assam between members of the local Bodo tribal community and Muslims have claimed 80 lives and displaced more than 400,000 people.
In New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appealed for calm.
“We have to maintain peace at any cost,” the prime minister said and added that Indians must discount rumours.
“We must work together to ensure that all people from other states do not feel threatened by rumour mongering and SMS (text messages),” Mr Singh told reporters, adding that he was in touch with chief ministers of the affected states.
Earlier yesterday, violence flared again, with security forces called out in the Nalbari and Kamrup districts after mobs torched a bus, a car and a wooden road bridge.
In a separate incident, 11 people were injured when acid was thrown at a group in the western Assam town of Gossaigaon in the troubled Kokrajhar district.
Police in the south said there were rumours that northeastern people, who look more East Asian or Tibetan than most Indians, would be attacked after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, around August 20.