Real Fear Story North Eastern

South Indian assures its North Eastern community

Hyderabad: The Siddique Nagar area of Hyderabad is not posh. It was known mainly for its proximity to Hitech City, the IT hub that handles outsourcing for many IT companies including some multinationals.

But this week, the colony, filled with narrow lanes and indistinguishable apartments, lost some of its anonymity this week. This is where a few thousand men from the North East live in small tenements. Many of them work as security guards in the large software firms nearby; others are housekeeping staff. Now, there are policemen guarding them in Siddique Nagar.

The ethnic violence in Assam between Bodo tribals and Bengali-speaking Muslims has killed nearly 80 people over the last month. Far from the epicentre of those clashes in lower Assam, cities like Hyderabad and Pune with similar landscapes of colleges and tech firms, have been worried about whether their turn is next. The concern is genuine - in Pune, 12 people from the North East were attacked in the last week - but since then, nobody has been hurt in any fallout of the Assam clashes. It is rumours, threatening text messages, and doctored videos that have been employed to create fear.

Since Sunday, say some of those who live in Siddique Nagar, phone calls from worried families have urged the North Easterners here to head home, at least for a few weeks. Some have responded. 

But the police has been patrolling areas popular among the North Eastern community to assure them they are safe. Leaders of different communities have also visited the area, urging residents to recognise this is their home, there is no need to leave.

"Hyderabad is for everyone, Muslims and Hindus. Just because there was trouble in Assam, doesn't mean there will be trouble here. We have communal harmony here," said Sheikh Jameel, in charge of a mosque at Siddique Nagar.

Gokul Bohra and Pradyuman Bohra, friends, both in their 30s, are packing their bags. They arrived in Hyderabad three years ago from Assam. They shared a one-room tenement with three others. Now, they are re-locating, not by boarding a train, but by picking a neighbourhood that they say is less obviously inhabited by others from the North East.

"Everyone is coming back, you too please come back. I can't sleep till you are back," Pradyuman's mother told him on the telephone. He assured her that he feels safe. When he doesn't, he promised, he will take the first train home.

Not too far from his flat is a mosque. Across from it, a temple. In between, there is a political party office that has been temporarily converted into a mini police station. 

Parikith Nath, originally from Assam, has lived in Hyderabad for 12 years. His wife Rupa is four months pregnant and his eight-year-old daughter Parishmita is going to school here. So leaving the city is not possible. "I was not afraid. But the other day at midnight, when I was coming back from work, two people stopped me and asked me to go back before Ramzan. That somehow scared me," he said.

Parikith says out of the 40 people from the North East working as security staff at his office, only two remain in Hyderabad - his brother and him.

The state Director-General of Police however says that less than 1000 people from the North East have left Hyderabad in the last few days.

On Friday evening, two Assam ministers Pradyuth Bordoloi and Rakibul Hussain arrived in Hyderabad and visited localities like Siddique Nagar with Andhra Pradesh Home Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy and officials from the Andhra Pradesh government. The idea was to convey that state governments are united in their commitment to protecting migrants.