Title - People from N-E heading back to Bangalore, say Railway officials

Reflecting a gradual return to normalcy after the panic exodus, people from the Northeast headed back to Bangalore in special trains from Guwahati and the situation also eased on Monday in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.A spokesman for the Northeast Frontier Railway, Nripen Bhattacharya, said in Guwahati that three special trains had left for Bangalore on Sunday taking back in a phased manner those who had fled from the capital of Karnataka fearing attacks on them sparked by rumours in the wake of violence in Assam. The official, however, could not give the exact number of people returning to Bangalore. “Today we also ran a special train from Kamakhya station in Guwahati to Dibrugarh for those passengers who are from upper Assam. The train left at 12.45 pm,” he said.Government officials said it would take two to three days before all of them returned to Bangalore and other cities like Pune and Chennai from where thousands of fear-stricken Northeasterners had fled.After four days of panic-driven exodus of Northeasterners, the situation eased on Monday with the police and railway officials saying it has stopped in Karnataka and reduced to a trickle in Tamil Nadu. In contrast to the exodus of people from the Northeast, it was a normal situation in Bangalore which was turned into a virtual fortress amid tight security.Up to 30,000 people had fled the country’s IT capital since late last week which abated on Sunday after the government went overdrive to instil confidence in the NE people.Over 18,000 police personnel, bolstered by the Rapid Action Force and Central Reserve Police Force, kept a vigil in Bangalore with Eid being celebrated on Monday. Bangalore Police Commissioner Jyothi Prakash Mirji said they have held several peace committee meetings with community leaders and police also intensified night patrolling.

“The situation is absolutely peaceful and normal...People from the Northeast are going about their chores without any disturbance and the exodus has completely stopped,” Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Suneel Kumar told PTI.

“There are no trains to Guwahati today... passengers, if any from Bangalore, will be directed to board Yeshwanthpur-Howrah Express from Yeshwanthpur and will have to proceed to Guwahati from Howrah,” ADGP Railways Bhaskar Rao said.