Muslim youth in pune share Assam video; Over 2,000 North East students leave city after last week's stray incidents

PUNE: Students from northeast began fleeing Pune too. Over 2,000 of them gathered at the Pune Railway station to grab seats in northeast-bound trains.

Railway authorities at Pune refused to comment, though they confirmed large crowds on platforms and two additional bogies being attached to trains leaving for northeast.

Pune, known to be a communally peaceful city, wasn't spared either. Last week saw sporadic attacks on students from the northeast. A group of about 30 people attacked Premanand Khondram, an 18-year-old Class XII student from Manipur, last Thursday. The same boy was attacked in the evening by another group.

While he filed a complaint in the evening, more students approached the police since the next day complaining of similar attacks and harassment. Premanand was the first to leave the city, three days ago, after he quit his course.

The police arrested and later released over 30 people, many of them allegedly from Muslim community. The police found video clips, of the alleged atrocities in Assam, being shared among Muslim youth in Pune.

The city police called a meeting of religious leaders in the city urging them to maintain peace in the city. It also formed peace committee at the police stations and some chowkies to avert crimes against Northeastern students.

Meanwhile, students' bodies representing the Seven Sisters of the northeast in Pune then collaborated and formed an informal forum on August 10. The called a press conference to explain their perspective. They stated that they certain groups were stopping them on the city roads and asking their native states. Some of them were beaten and slapped.

"Most of the attackers seemed uneducated as they could not differentiate between Manipur and Assam," the spokesperson said at the conference.

The forum had a fallout four days later as the body representing Manipuri students distanced itself from the forum. "Most of those attacked were Manipuris. As things are getting clear on why the violence started, we don't want to associate ourselves with a state where the alleged incidents are taking place," Alam MK, president of the Manipur Students' Association told the press.

Meanwhile, the student wing of NCP in Pune tried to grab some attention out of these attacks, as it started a 'awareness and support campaign'.