Over the last one week, the North-East people in the city have gone through horrifying days of uncertainty and fear. Over 30,000 of them have even fled the city to their home state, fearing attacks. But members of this peaceful community now say that they don’t nurse any ill-will against the Muslims and that the incident was not triggered by them. It was a few miscreants who orchestrated the entire episode and instilled a sense of fear among the NE groups, who fled, said Dr Simanta Sharma, advisor, Assam Society of Bangalore. “We have no ill-feelings towards the Muslim community. Even in Assam, the Muslims are not being targeted. In fact, the Muslims have been supporting us. We should not give importance to such miscreants. They should be ignored, lest they will try whip up more confusion,” he said.
The rumors spread like wildfire among the NE community. “However we never pointed fingers at the Muslim community. It was confusion among the NE people that led to the chaos,” said Omprakash Potskngbam, President, Bangalore Manipuri Students’ Association. Many Assamese in city said they have good relations with Muslims and have been living in harmony with them back home. Himanshu Raj, a media professional and a native of Assam, said, “I have many Muslim friends and they are really good people. We share a very cordial relationship. In fact back home, one of my father’s close friends is a Muslim.”