Residents from North East return to their jobs

Days after thousands of panicking North east residents fled cities such as Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad, fearing attacks from militants, and went back home to their states, many have started returning to their jobs.
 
While the exodus of Northeast residents has virtually come to a halt from many cities, reports from the region say thousands of youngsters are now planning to return to these cities, worried about their jobs.
 
Many of the youngsters interviewed by television channels in Guwahati, Itanagar and other capitals of the Northeastern region, admitted that they had panicked unnecessarily following rumours of a backlash against them by militant groups.
 
Unidentified groups had threatened to attack Assamese living in other parts of India in retaliation for the alleged attacks on Muslims in Assam.
 
The initial trigger for the exodus of Northeasterners from the major cities was the violence unleashed by hooligans in Mumbai, who attacked police vans, television OB vans, public transport buses and even molested policewomen, after a local organisation held a rally to protest against the attacks on Muslims in Assam.
 
Two persons were killed and more than 50 injured during the riots that broke out earlier this month at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai. While the police ruled out the role of the organisers of the rally in the attacks, they said some groups were distributing doctored images of attacks on Muslims in Assam and Myanmar, to provoke the crowd.
 
Investigations by Indian authorities revealed that many of the doctored images and videos had been featured on several websites and even on social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter. The government has in recent days ordered the blocking of several sites internet pages on social networking sites.
 
Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde also informed his Pakistani counterpart, Rehman Malik, that unnamed elements in the neighbouring country were using social networking sites to spread rumours and whip up communal passions in India.
 
The government suspects the hand of terrorist groups including Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jehad al Islami (HuJI), in sending text messages to millions of phones, warning Northeastern residents of a backlash. Some domestic militant groups, including some based in Kerala, are also learnt to have sent the text messages, triggering off panic among Northeasterners living in other parts of India.