Title - Community under stress

Mysore/Hubli: A day after the attack, Tibetan students and employees in Mysore are under tremendous stress. Some of them have returned to settlements in Bylakuppe and Gurupura while a few others have sought police protection. Working Tibetans, especially nurses, have taken leave and are uncertain about continuing work for some time.
    Community leaders have alerted people to be watchful. Tibetans suspect the attack could be because of misleading posts on social media networks about the situation in Assam and Myanmar. Tibetans who spoke to TOI requested that not too many details about them be revealed.
    Tibetan parliament-in-exile member Lobsang Yeshi expressed shock over the attack and suspected it’s an act of people with ulterior motives and those misled by wrong information. “It’s perhaps the first such attack on Tibetans in India. We’re worried about the safety of our people,” Yeshi said. Tibetan camp leaders sent a communiqué to all Tibetans in Mysore to take precautions.
    Tensing Pasang, a research scholar, said he didn’t expect it to happen to Tibetans who have been living amicably here for decades. “When I heard about the incident, I alerted Tibetan students and employees.”
    Tibetans living in Mundgod and other parts of Hubli have also sought security.
    A few days ago, stones were thrown at a taxi owned by a Tibetan, which was ferrying monks, while a Tibetan waiting in a queue for a ticket at Hubli railway station, was allegedly hit by some miscreants.
    Sonam Tenzing, representative, Central Tibetan Administration, Tibetan settlement, Mundgod, told TOI: “Some vested interests have spread some wrong messages among the people through social media networks.”
No role in Myanmar clashes: leader
    Tibetan leader in Karnataka Jampa Phuntsok pointed out misconceptions among some Muslims in India that Buddhist monks, particularly Tibetan ones, are connected with reported incidents of attack on Muslims in Myanmar.
    He said it was a case of mistaken identity. The assailants appear to be carried away by pictures and false news on some social media websites. “Some websites are spreading rumours about attacks on Muslims in Myanmar by posting pictures on the 2010 earthquake in Tibet where Buddhist monks are readying themselves for performing last rites of earthquake victims,” he said, adding this may have provoked assailants to attack a Tibetan. TNN