MHA fears backlash against northeast people, puts three states on alert

The Home Ministry today asked Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana governments to be fully alert.

In the wake of lynching of a rape accused in Dimapur, the Home Ministry fears that a backlash against people from the northeast living in Bengaluru, Pune and Gurgaon and asked the state governments concerned to ensure their security.

In an advisory, the Home Ministry today asked Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana governments to be fully alert and ensure security of northeast people. The communication has been sent by the Home Ministry after it found that a misinformation campaign about the Dimapur incident was going on in social media.

“We suspect that the social media is being used by some anti-social elements to create tension and instigate people to attack people of northeast origin in the three cities,” a Home Ministry official said justifying the issuing of the advisory.

The Centre also told the states to deploy adequate security forces in places where sizeable number of northeast people live and travel around in these cities. Post on social media were monitored after Syed Sarif Khan, who was accused of raping a girl, was lynched by a mob after being dragged out from a jail in Dimapur.

The mob stripped Khan naked, thrashed him, pelted him with stones and dragged him towards the centre of Dimapur town, seven kilometres away from the jail. He died from his injuries on the way after which the mob displayed his body from a clock tower.

Thousands of northeast origin people living in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and other cities had fled their place of work and study in August 2012 after rumours of possible attacks on them in the wake of clashes between Bodo tribals and immigrant Muslims in Assam that year.

Source:: Indian Express