Thousands afraid of attacks flee Bangalore

BANGALORE, INDIA — Thousands of panic-stricken Indians from the northeast were fleeing the southern city of Bangalore on Thursday, spurred by rumours they would be attacked in retaliation for communal violence in their home state.

Hundreds of students and workers from Assam state crowded Bangalore’s main railway station to try to board trains heading out of the city, while officials tried in vain to assure them of their safety. People pushed and shoved, and some climbed in through train windows to make it past the crush at the doors.

The exodus followed clashes in Assam in recent weeks between members of the indigenous Bodo tribe and Muslims that killed more than 50 people and left 400,000 in displacement camps. The violence has spilled to other states where Bodos and other ethnic tribe members from the poor northeast have migrated in search of jobs.

Those fleeing Bangalore said they had heard that text messages had been circulating threatening attacks by Muslims.

Jagadish Shettar, chief minister of Karnataka state, met separately with Assamese and Muslim leaders Thursday in an effort to restore calm. Bangalore is the capital of Karnataka.

Shettar said no one had seen any threatening text messages and authorities were trying to find out who was behind the rumours. He said police and security forces were on alert and telephone helplines had been set up to give a sense of security to people in the city.

Decades of ethnic strife and turmoil in India’s northeast have forced hundreds of thousands of young people to move out of the region in search of an education and jobs.

Railway authorities in Bangalore were adding extra coaches on trains heading to Gauhati, the main city in Assam, to help deal with the rush of people.