Amid government's concern on the issue of home-grown terror, the annual meet of country's top police officers will for the first time have a special session on banned terrorist group Indian Mujahideen, most of whose members are Indians.
The North East Students Organisation (NESO), the apex student body of the region, has called a 12-hour bandh in all states of the region, except Assam, on Thursday to protest against influx of migrant labourers and others into the region from other states.
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India will share evidence with Pakistan on morphed images and inflammatory videos uploaded in that country that triggered exodus of Northeast origin people from Bangalore, Pune, Chennai and Mumbai.
Northeast students and professionals, who had fled Maharashtra and Karnataka and other states, have begun returning to their respective workplace and institutions, a good will team of the Bharatiya Janata Party touring the NE region said on Monday.
Press Council of India Chairman Markandey Katju on Friday slammed television news channels for 'excessive' coverage on film stars, cricket and astrology to boost viewership rather than focusing on real issues such as economy, poverty, unemployment and farmers' suicides.
In the wake of recent violence in Assam and the subsequent exodus of panic-gripped northeast people from some other states, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi convened a meeting with the editors of newspapers to elicit their views to bring about normalcy in the affected areas and to rehabilitate inmates in relief camps.
Even as Pakistan seeks proof of their hand in the panic campaign, which led to the exodus of people from north-east, the police probing these cases is struggling to find the group/persons who generated these messages.
Strengthening age-old relations between the people of Maharashtra and those living in the northeastern states, Chief Minister Prithiviraj Singh Chavan has announced several concessional steps, including chartered planes from Guwahati to Mumbai and Pune for students to return to their educational institutions.
India has sought help from the United States and Saudi Arabia to track down the internet Protocol addresses of the webpages where morphed images and videos were uploaded to create social unrest in the country.
The Assam police are focussing on plans to ensure that those who returned to the northeast in panic from other parts of the country go back, state Director General of police Jayanta Narayan Choudhury said on Tuesday.
Kerala-based Popular Front of India has come under the scanner of intelligence agencies for its suspected role in spreading inflammatory SMSes and MMSes following the Assam violence, that triggered exodus of northeastern people from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
The government had banned bulk SMSes and MMSes for 15 days across the country from August 18.
Social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube have informed the government that inflammatory contents uploaded on their pages originated from Pakistan.
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Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Sunday wanted swift legal action against people behind the violence in Assam and also stern action against those 'spoiling' harmony in the wake of the exodus of people from the northeast in some states.
A textile shop worker was arrested in Coimbatore on Sunday for allegedly forwarding SMSes on the Assam violence to many persons in the city, the police said.
With over 7,000 panic-stricken Northeast-origin people arriving in Guwahati from Southern states through five special trains so far, the All Assam Students Union on Sunday called upon the state governments of the region and the government to persuade them to go back to their workplace and education institutions out there with assured of security for their safety.
Terming as 'shocking' the home ministry statement that elements in Pakistan are behind creating panic among people from the north-east, the Janata Dal-United) on Sunday alleged that it was an 'excuse' by the government to 'cover up' its 'inept' handling of situation.
A Pakistan-based hardline group is suspected to have been involved in doctoring images and spreading them across social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and You Tube to incite Muslims and create scare among people of northeastern region living across India.
Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav on Saturday advocated temporary ban on social networking sites to check rumour mongering in view of exodus of people hailing from the northeast from various parts of the country.
Railway officials informed that they would wait for another 17 hours and then decide whether to completely withdraw the special train services to north-eastern states.
The official count of the people who have left Karnataka stood at 29,635 and till the filing of this report some 2000-odd people are waiting at the Bengaluru railway station to leave the city.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday night discussed with Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan the drought-like situation as also the security scenario in the state arising following the blasts in Pune and exodus of people of Northeastern states.
The Bangalore police are checking the antecedents of some activists who have been adding fuel to the fire on the exodus of North-East Indians issue. An activist, whose name has been withheld, is under a cloud for sending out emails to North-East Indian students adding to the panic.
Investigating agencies have stumbled upon a blog which they claim is related to the exodus of northeast residents from various parts of the country. After investigations it has been found that a blogger from Maharashtra hit the panic button which led to rumour- mongering across many metros.
The violence in Assam was a result of clashes between Bodos and 'resident Muslims' and not Bangladeshi immigrants, the National Commission for Minorities has said while recommending setting up of an Special Investigation Team to probe major incidents of violence in the state.
To check the spread of rumours which has led to the exodus of north-eastern people from certain states, the government has banned bulk SMSes and MMSes for 15 days across the country. "We have banned bulk SMSes and MMSes for 15 days," said Union Home Secretary R K Singh.
Overcome by a sense of fear after rumours of attacks and fuelled by the exodus from Bengaluru, northeasterners in Chennai are also leaving the city, even as police assured them that they were safe.
Expressing anguish at the exodus of north-eastern people from Pune, Bangalore and other major cities, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushma Swaraj on Friday said the Parliament must unite to tackle the issue. "Let us say in one voice in this Parliament to all residents of the north-east that this country is yours, we are all with you, study, live where you want, you will be looked after," Swaraj told the Lok Sabha during a debate on Assam.
An initial probe into the exodus by northeast residents from Bengaluru and other cities, fearing communal violence, reveals that the problem is multipronged in nature. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
RSS, VHP activists distributed saffron colour scarves advising North-East Indians they visited to sport it as a shield against any attack on them. Mohammed Siddique reports.
Decrying rumours about attacks on people from North-East living in other states, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made an appeal to remain vigilant and maintain peace at any cost.
At a time when tension was already high among the North Eastern people in different parts of the country and rumours were triggering their exodus, a statement by the All India Assam Students Union leader in Guwahati about the death of an Assamese passenger in Andhra Pradesh has further heightened the tension.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Thursday appealed to students and people from Assam and other parts of the north-east to refrain from rushing back to their home states in panic. The chief minister made the comment in the wake of reports of mass exodus of people, particularly students, who are afraid of a backlash following the widespread violence in lower Assam.
Post Saturday's violence in Mumbai following an anti-Assam protest that claimed 2 lives and left over 50 injured, a northeast student received an anonymous SMS in Bengaluru, which read: Be careful and look after yourselves, you will be attacked after Ramazan.
With people from the northeast 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.
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With no let up in crimes against Hindus in Mirpurkhas area of Pakistan's Sindh province from where nearly 20 families have left the country, the minority community leaders from the region have approached the Indian and US missions for help.