MHA fears attacks on Northeasterners in metro cities

New Delhi: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday issued an advisory to the governments of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana about possible attacks on the people from Northeast states living there as a backlash of Dimapur lynching incident.

In the advisory, MHA has asked these states to be fully alert and ensure security of northeast people. 

The communication has been sent by the Home Ministry after it found that a misinformation campaign about the Dimapur incident was going on in social media.

“We suspect that the social media is being used by some anti-social elements to create tension and instigate people to attack people of northeast origin in the three cities,” a Home Ministry official said justifying the issuing of the advisory.

The Centre also told the states to deploy adequate security forces in places where sizeable number of Northeast people live and roam around in these cities. 
The activities in social media were seen after Syed Sarif Khan, who was accused of raping a girl, was lynched by a mob after being dragged out from a jail in Dimapur.
The mob stripped Khan naked, beat him up, pelted him with stones and dragged him towards the centre of Dimapur town, seven kilometres away from the jail. 
He died from his injuries on the way after which the mob displayed his body from a clock tower.

The Home Ministry on Wednesday received report from Nagaland government claiming that the deceased, Khan, did not rape sexual assault survivor and that the sex between him and the victim was consensual.

The accused had paid Rs 5000 to the victim after two sexual encounters, the report said. The report said this conclusion is based on the statement of the deceased before he was lynched.
In the last few days, 43 persons have been arrested in Dimapur in connection with the lynching of Syed Sarif alias Farid Khan. Police said more arrests will be made after going through the mobile clippings uploaded in social networking sites.
The situation in Dimapur is still tense, police officials said.

In August 2012, thousands of Northeast origin people living in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and other cities had fled their place of work and study after rumours of possible attacks on them surfaced in the wake of clashes between Bodo tribals and immigrant Muslims in Assam.

(With inputs from agencies)