Indian PM moves to calm panic

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured migrants from the northeast of the country that they were safe as thousands fled Mumbai, Bangalore and other cities on Friday, fearing a backlash from violence against Muslims in Assam.

Railway authorities have laid on extra trains from Bangalore and other cities for the two-day journey back to Assam, a northeastern state famous for its tea and oilfields. Some media reports said that by Friday as many as 15,000 had left cities in the south and west.

"What is at stake is the unity of our country. What is at stake is communal harmony," Singh told parliament.

"I assure you ... that we will do our utmost to ensure that our friends and our children and our citizens from the northeast feel secure in any and every part of our country."

Muslims across India have been alarmed by clashes in recent weeks between indigenous people in Assam and Muslim settlers from neighboring Bangladesh. At least 75 people have been killed and more than 400,000 displaced there.

India's post-independence history has been scarred by tension between religious and ethnic groups, which has sometimes erupted in blood-letting. While local tensions between Hindus and Muslims have often spread across the country, this is the first time that ethnic unrest in the remote northeast has had a domino effect on the rest of India.

Two people were killed and dozens wounded last week when about 10,000 people rioted in Mumbai, the country's financial capital, following a protest by Muslims against the violence in the northeast.

Rumors of revenge attacks by Muslims have been swirling, many of which have been carried on social media and mass mobile phone text messages.

"When we go out at night, then the Muslims threaten us by saying that they will cut us into pieces," said Raju Kumar, as he waited to board a train to Assam at Mumbai railway station. "They say that you people are threatening us in Assam and killing us there, we will not spare you here."

Singh said: "It is the obligation of all of us, regardless of the party, that we work together to create an atmosphere where this rumor-mongering will come to an end."

Analysts say political parties and religious organizations have been exploiting the ethnic tension in the northeast for their ends.

The Hindu nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, which has in the past been accused of fomenting Hindu-Muslim violence, blames the Assam riots on uncontrolled immigration into the state from Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

It says the Congress party, which leads the coalition government, allows immigration to win votes from new arrivals.

Reuters