Pune: Over the past four days, at least 10 students and
professionals in Pune have been attacked; they all belong to the north
eastern part of the country. The police have arrested nine
people for these attacks that have happened in Pune Camp, Hadapsar and
Kondwa areas, but the students feel that is not enough. These
professionals and students have now formed an umbrella association - the
North East Students Forum, and have met top police officials in the
city requesting them to provide security to the community.
Many of them feel they are being targeted as a fallout of the violence
in Assam that left at least 70 people dead and 4 lakh homeless. "We
don't really know why this is happening. The attacks seem to be because
of misunderstanding as all north east students bear the same physical
features," says Rock Lungleng the convenor of the newly formed group. He
also added that though initially they were terrified after the spate of
attacks, they feel just a little more secure after meeting police
officials.
Police sources say the attackers were possibly instigated
after watching a doctored MMS clip which is being circulated in the
city. One attacker surrendered before the police and reportedly told
them he go furious after watching the MMS clip and he regretted his
action.
The police also suspect it is this same clip that triggered the violence in Mumbai last Saturday.
The Pune police are now on the lookout for the source of the alleged doctored clip.
Nearly 10,000 students and professionals from north eastern states live in Pune.
