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Assam violence death toll rises to 21, shoot-at-sight order issued

That is fine. Present the fact that it is the stated position but we do not control Akshai Shin or whatever is under Pakistan. La Bong mentioned that he read about it in his school books but in my case, it was not the situation.

Even our school's history book and even the Geography book included the Aksai Chin and *** as integral part of India and mine was a state syllabus and not CBSE or ICSE. I don't really remember if they taught us about the Kashmir issue but I am quite sure abt the map...
 
Sometimes that bland homogenous cuisine can save of you allergies coming from a variety food. And it it any coincidence that when our body is sick, we usually take a bland homogenous cuisine and not the 7 course meal ?


No what is naive is you take the example of Islamic republic of Pakistan and juxtapose that on India. No my friend both are not cut from the same cloth. For starters we dont have books or mullahs preaching who is the true Hindu and who are wajb-ul-qatl. We dont have a religion whose initiating ceremony begins with "there is no god except Shiva".

India may/may not have been a garden of peace, but it definitely would have been a more peaceful place. As you said caste violence may be there, but isn't it relatively ok for 5 people to die from a single incident than 50 people to die from multiple incidents. Moreover while I can visibly see caste differences getting melted away, I'm afraid I cant say the same for inter-faith differences.

population of Hindus in 1948 was around 87% of total population and of Muslim 8% only, while right now population of Hindus is around 78% and of Muslims around 18% then its just because India never had any type of "Hindu Revolution", (like Islamic Revolutions in different Islamic countries, including Christian Western nations who try to dominate minorities in a 'liberal' way.) Secularism of India is simply because of Hinduism and this also means that until Hindu population will remain dominant in India, secularism will be maintained in India......... these wrong ID Indians, or illegal bangladeshi migrants like Joe, argue all these as they are more in hate of scularism of Hinduism. Its the 87% Hindus Majority in 1948 who gave respect to Mr Kalam, which was certainly not possible in either a Muslim or Christian nation :wave:. see how Hindu/Sikhs were removed from Pakistan and now Shia/Ahmedi on traget. even by force, India will have to resist the intentions of these wrong ID Indians otherwise India will finally become a country like how they have made Pakistan/Bangladesh............
 
5 killed in fresh violence in lower Assam, toll rises to 61

GUWAHATI: After a calm of ten days fresh violence broke out in parts of lower Assam claiming five lives and pushing the overall toll to 61 today.

Three bodies bearing bullet wounds were found in Chirang and two from Kokrajhar district, where one person is reported missing, police said.

Chirang Superintendent of Police Kumar Sanjiv Krishna said the three - father and his two sons - had left the camp for displaced persons at Kawatika village of Chirang district in the afternoon yesterday and their bodies were found today.

"They left the camp without informing anybody and without any security. Since then they were untraced. Today we found their bodies at Borlangshu village at Chirang district," he said.

Tension prevails in Chirang districts following recovery of the bodies and there are reports of minority community protesting on the streets against the death of the three men.

Inspector General of Police (Bodoland Territorial Areas District) S N Singh told PTI that two more bodies have been recovered from Kokrajhar, while one person was reported missing.

Additional reinforcements of police and para military forces have been rushed to the affected areas, where forces are already deployed since the outbreak of Bodo-Muslim clashes in July, Singh said.

Night curfew continues in Kokrajhar and Chirang, which are part of Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts, and Dhubri, which is outside it.

5 killed in fresh violence in lower Assam, toll rises to 61 - The Times of India
 
BBC News - Thousands flee violence threats in Indian city of Bangalore

Thousands of people from India's north-eastern states have fled the southern city of Bangalore amid fears that they will be targeted in attacks.

Indian Home Secretary RK Singh blamed the mass exodus on "rumour mongering".

He insisted there was was no threat to anyone from the north-east living anywhere in the country.

Correspondents say the rumours of attacks may be linked to clashes in the north-eastern state of Assam last month.

More than 300,000 people fled after fighting between indigenous Bodo tribes and Muslims in Assam.

Fresh violence between the two sides was reported on Thursday when a mob burnt down a bus and a road bridge, reports say.

Police said local Muslims blocked a highway in protest against an overnight incident in which a group of Bodos set a car on fire near Rangiya, 60km (40 miles) west of Assam's main city of Guwahati.

'All frightened'

The main railway station in Bangalore was flooded with migrant workers from north-eastern states after rumours spread on Wednesday.

The railways ran special trains to the north-east to cope with the rush, officials said.

There are 250,000 people from the north-east living and working in Bangalore, which is often referred to as the Silicon Valley of India.

Many of them are students, security guards and workers in the hospitality sector.

Around 4,000 fled on Wednesday, a senior police officer in the city told the BBC.

He said that rumours about possible violence were spread by text messages.

"We will soon catch hold of people who sent out these messages," said the police officer.

Karnataka Chief Minister Jagdish Shettar said that he had reassured Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that there were "no untoward incidents nor any threat to people of north-eastern states [living in Bangalore]."

He added: "I promised that [the] necessary steps would be taken to give protection to these people."

Manoj, a security guard from a north-east state, told the BBC that residents of the region were "all frightened".

"My friend [from the region] was threatened by a knife-wielding man saying that he should leave the city if he cared for his life," he said.

A worker at a city restaurant from the region said there were "rumours that people from the north-east would be attacked".

The rumours came a day after a 22-year-old Tibetan student was allegedly attacked in Mysore city near Bangalore by two people who suspected him of being from the north-east.

Many young people from the restive north-east region have migrated to the cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore in search of better jobs and education.
 
BBC News - Thousands continue to flee Indian cities

The exodus of people from India's north-eastern states living in the southern city of Bangalore continues with more migrant workers fleeing.

There are reports of people from the region fleeing the the cities of Chennai (Madras) and Pune as well.

PM Manmohan Singh has appealed for calm and said peace "must be maintained at any cost".

Officials have blamed the exodus on "rumour mongering" linked to clashes in the north-eastern Assam state.

More than 300,000 people fled after fighting between indigenous Bodo tribes and Muslim settlers in Assam.

Fresh violence between the two sides was reported on Thursday when a mob set fire to a bus and a road bridge, reports say. At least nine people were reported to be injured in clashes.

The main railway station in Bangalore was flooded with migrant workers from north-eastern states for a second successive day on Thursday to catch three special trains to the north-east.

A senior Bangalore official told the BBC that nearly 15,000 people from the region had left the city since Wednesday, when the rumours broke out.

There are 250,000 people from the north-east living and working in Bangalore, which is often referred to as the Silicon Valley of India.

Many of them are students, security guards and workers in the hospitality sector.

A minister in the local government S Suresh Kumar told the Press Trust of India that the exodus was "not due to a threat factor, but due to the anxiety [of the people leaving] to be with their parents when Assam has been gripped by violence".

The rumours of attacks have spread to neighbouring Chennai in Tamil Nadu state, and Pune in Maharashtra to the north-west, reports say.

Workers and students from the north-east - mostly from Assam - living in Chennai arrived at the railway station to board to special trains to take them home, one report said.

"Nothing has happened till now, but we are very sure something really bad is going to happen. Our Bangalore friends have said we have to leave," Bishnu, a migrant worker from Assam, told The Hindu newspaper.

Reports of a similar exodus are being reported from western Pune city, where many north-east people working in the city are reported to have fled.

The rumours of attacks have been spread through text messages and the social media. There have been a few reports of people being threatened to leave.

"We must work together to ensure that all people from other states do not feel threatened by rumour mongering and text messages," PM Manmohan Singh said.

Many young people from the restive north-east region have migrated to the cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore in search of better jobs and education.
 
BRAJAKHAL, India — Like a fever, fear has spread across India this week, from big cities like Bangalore to smaller places like Mysore, a contagion fueling a message: Run. Head home. Flee. And that is what thousands of migrants from the country’s distant northeastern states are doing, jamming into train stations in an exodus challenging the Indian ideals of tolerance and diversity.

What began as an isolated communal conflict here in the remote state of Assam, a vicious if obscure fight over land and power between Muslims and the indigenous Bodo tribe, has unexpectedly set off widespread panic among northeastern migrants who had moved to more affluent urban cities for a piece of India’s rising prosperity.

A swirl of unfounded rumors, spread by text messages and social media, has warned of attacks by Muslims against northeastern migrants, prompting the panic and the exodus. Indian leaders, deeply alarmed, have pleaded for calm, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appeared in Parliament on Friday to denounce the rumor mongering and offer reassurance to northeastern migrants.

“What is at stake is the unity and integrity of our country,” Mr. Singh said. “What is at stake is communal harmony.”

The hysteria in several of the country’s most advanced urban centers has underscored the deep roots of ethnic tensions in India, where communal conflict is usually simplified as Hindu versus Muslim yet is often far more complex. For decades, Indian leaders have mostly managed to isolate and triangulate regional ethnic conflicts, if not always resolve them, but the public panic this week is a testament to how the old strategies may be less effective in an information age.

Last week, the central government started moving to stabilize Assam, where at least 78 people have been killed and more than 300,000 have fled their homes for refugee camps. Then Muslims staged a large, angry protest in Mumbai, the country’s financial capital, on the western coast. A wave of fear began sweeping through northeastern migrants after several people from the northeast were beaten up in Pune, a city not far from Mumbai.

By Wednesday and Thursday, the exodus had begun. So many people were pouring into train stations in Bangalore and Chennai that the Railways Ministry later added special services to certain northeastern cities. By Friday, even as some of the fears eased in the biggest cities, people were leaving smaller cities, including Mysore and Mangalore.

To many northeastern migrants, the impulse to rush home — despite the trouble in Assam — is a reminder of how alienated many feel from mainstream India. The northeast, tethered to the rest of the country by a narrow finger of land, has always been neglected. Populated by a complex mosaic of ethnic groups, the northeast has also been plagued by insurgencies and rivalries as different groups compete for power.

Here in Assam, the underlying frictions are over the control of land, immigration pressures and the fight for political power. The savagery and starkness of the violence have been startling. Of the 78 people killed, some were butchered. More than 14,000 homes have been burned. That 300,000 people are in refugee camps is remarkable; had so many people fled across sub-Saharan Africa to escape ethnic persecution, a humanitarian crisis almost certainly would have been declared.

“If we go back and they attack us again, who will save us?” asked Subla Mushary, 35, who is now living with her two teenage daughters at a camp for Bodos. “I have visited my home. There is nothing left.”

Assam, which has about 31 million people, has a long history of ethnic strife. The current violence is focused on the westernmost region of the state, which is claimed by the Bodos as their homeland. For years, Bodo insurgent groups fought for political autonomy, with some seeking statehood and others seeking to create an independent Bodo nation.

In 2003, India’s central government, then led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, brokered a deal in which Bodo insurgents agreed to cease their rebellions in exchange for the creation of a special autonomous region, now known as the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts. It was a formula long used by Indian leaders to subdue regional rebellions: persuade rebels to trade the power of the gun for the power of the ballot box.

Now the Bodos dominate the government overseeing the autonomous districts, even though they are not a majority, accounting for about 29 percent of a population otherwise splintered among Muslims, other indigenous tribal groups, Hindus and other native Assamese. Competition over landownership is a source of rivalry and resentment: the land rights of Muslims are tightly restricted inside the special districts, even though they constitute the region’s second-largest group, after the Bodos.

“This whole fight is about land and capturing power,” said Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, a member of Parliament and a Muslim leader in a neighboring district. “It is not a religious fight.”

These resentments exploded in July and early August, after an escalating cycle of attacks between Muslims and Bodos. Soon entire villages were being looted and burned. The authorities have made few arrests, and each side has blamed the other. The Bodos say illegal Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh are streaming into the autonomous districts and taking over vacant land, and Muslims say such claims are a smokescreen intended to disguise a Bodo campaign to drive out rightful Muslim residents in a campaign similar to ethnic cleansing.

During the worst violence, the state government in Assam seemed paralyzed. One issue is that many former Bodo rebels never turned over their automatic weapons; some Muslims driven from their homes say Bodos scared them off by firing AK-47s into the air.

To visit some of the affected villages is to witness the eerie silence of lives brutally interrupted. In Brajakhal, the entire Muslim section was burned and looted, while the homes of non-Muslims were left untouched. In the nearby village of Chengdala, each side apparently attacked the other — both the Bodo and Muslim homes are destroyed, with a handful of others left standing.

Sumitra Nazary, a Bodo woman, said her elderly father was bludgeoned to death with an ax.

“He was paralyzed,” she said. “He couldn’t run away.”

It is uncertain when the people in the refugee camps will be able to return to their villages. Paramilitary units and Assam police officers have erected temporary guard posts outside many of the destroyed or looted villages, promising security. Meanwhile, Assam’s chief minister ordered refugees to begin returning to their homes this week, even as new violence was reported in some areas.

At the camps, life is increasingly miserable. This week, two members of the National Commission for Minorities visited the region and documented problems with sanitation, malnutrition and living conditions at different camps, particularly those inhabited by Muslims. One camp had 10 makeshift toilets for 4,300 people. At another camp, they reported, more than 6,500 people were crammed into a converted high school, including 30 pregnant women.

The scene was little different at a Muslim refugee camp created at the Srirampur R.M.E. School. More than 5,200 people were living on the grounds, crowded under the shade of trees to hide from the broiling midday sun.

Goi Mohammad Sheikh, 39, had delivered his wife and five children to the camp but was returning to their village at night to protect their home. It had been looted but not burned, he said, and he and a group of other men were standing guard.

“We want to protect our houses,” he said. “In some villages, it will not be possible to go back. It is too dangerous. But we will not leave our village. If they kill us, let them kill us. How do we leave our motherland?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/18/w...rom-indian-state-of-assam.html?pagewanted=all
 
Secularism in pure form is good. But what is practiced in India is pseudo-secularism counting on votebanks and compromising on secular values ( Gandhi - support for Khilafat, Rajiv - Shahbano case and opening of Babri Masjid for prayer to Hindus, Karunanidhi's nonsense against Ram but keeps mum against other religious gods, Indira promoting Bhindranwale and going against him later). So I feel this is nothing but failure of secularism in India. This is similar to the communism. Utopian communism is painted as good for common people. But the forms practiced by USSR, Cambodia etc. showcased the failure.

Real secularism is actually denounced as communal in India. #UniformCivilCode.

True Story.
 
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