Exodus started. Thousands of NE residents working mainly in the sectors like security, hospitality, IT firms, eateries and students thronged to city  railway station. Even though state Deputy Chief Minister and home minister of the state Mr. R. Ashok visited the railway station on first day itself it had very little impact on the fear stricken NE residents. Exodus increased on August 16. By 17th evening  more than 35,000 NE residents had left the city.

Security agencies of the city were hit by this mass flee. As security agencies mostly employ gurds fromt the North East  States in a large number, they suffered by the shortage if staff due to exodus. Most of the Chinese restaurants too faced a same plight.

As thousands of people rushed to the city station at a time, the city central railway station was literally turned into a refugees camp. The South Western Railways arranges two special trains from Bangalore to Guwahati on the first day (August 15).  Another train was also left the city as per the regular schedule. Situation was so serious that at one stage, fearing that they may not get seats, passengers  even broke emergency window to enter the train. Carrying an unexpressed fear on their faces thousands of North Easterners left the city.
According to the media, the first alleged hate crime incident was took place in Hubli on July 28. A bank manager from NE  was reportedly assaulted by the section of a particular community, when he visited their area for official work.

An attack on a Tibetian boy in Mysore was further added  to the fear.  At Mysore a 20 years old Tenzin Dhargyal was stabbed by two miscreants  on August 14 night.
There are 21,000 Tibetians in Bylakuppe and Gurpur tibetian settlements near Mysore. After this  hate crime incidents  police were deployed  in both the camps and a constant patrolling was organised around this settlement.

These incidents made North East citizens to lose trust in the government  and created a fear phobia about an possible attack. According to the NE citizens,  they received a message saying  ? Please its a request to everyone to call their relatives, son and daughters from Bangalore to call them back as soon as possible. Last night four north east guys were killed  by Muslims in  Bangalore (2 Manipuri, 2 Nepali ) and also the reports are after 20thi.e. ramzan after 2 pm they are going to attack every North Eastern people. The main reason that started this riot was the situation at Kokrajar of Assam be aware of this and stay away from the danger do pass the message to all the students,?? was circulated among residents from North East region. This spread like a wildfire.

National executive committee member of ABVP Sanjeev Kumar says, ?Residents of NE started to receive messages from August 11. In the beginning nobody took it seriously. But

NE population in Banglore
Total		2 lakh
Assam		40,000
Manipur		25,000
Nagaland		15,000
Others from Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Sikkim

slowly it spread like wildfire. At the same time other untoward incidents like threatening, teasing and landlords asking to vacate the houses, threat from auto rickshaw drivers were also reported from different parts of the city. Thus North Easterners became panic??.

North Easterners are minority population here. So they are feeling in- secured here in Bangalore. Saving their life is their first priority. They may encounter attack at any place or at any time. Their scared Parents are also asking them to come back . Thus despite repeated appeals they went back to their native?? he pointed out.

A research scholar Juganth says, ?I personally met several people who visited the railway station to convince them stay back in city itself. But most of them worried by the what was happened at Mumbai and same thing may return in city. Everybody knew that leaving to native places is not a solution. But due to fear they couldn?t stay even here. Vote bank politics should be blamed for all these??.  

Horror stories: Every one who was waiting for Assam train had a horror experience. Most of them were the victims of the hate crime or alleged threat to life. Mr. Arjun Singh, a resident of Manipur and who is working for a security agency had tears when he narrated how his family was ill treated by his house owner just because they are from NE. ?I did n?t had any plan to leave the city till August 16. But on same night my house owner forced my wife and one month old baby to spend their night outside the home,? he said. Most of the passengers had under gone similar experience.  

Nature of threat

In most of the cases NE resident were threatened verbally. They were insulted while on the way to homes in the night after finishing their works. While going to collect LPG cylinders and while hiring autos.

Sharing the reason behind his flee to native place, Arjun Singh, a student says, ?I left the city even though exams are scheduled next week. Many of my friends called me in the midnight enquiring did I get any threat. Such developments shakes every one. Even before the Assam riots, NE residents were often targeted by few people. But such cases were increased now.  Need of the hour is confidence building.??

Police inaction: even though state machinery had assured all support and security to the NE residents, in reality it was very different. On August 18, Deccan Chronilcle English daily published from the city in its page one reported how police are ignoring the complaints of the NE residents. According to the report, a group of miscreants had barged into the room of one Mr. Kevin Sumi who is from Nagaland and residing at Koramangala 8th block on August 17th night. Even though Mr. Kevin ringed up three police station one which is just 100 meter away from his room no one picked his call. He spent his whole night locking himself inside the room.

Because of all these fear psychosis among the NE was so strong and  they were reluctant to change their stand even though several ministers themselves visited the railway station to convince.  According to the NE residents associations  25 incidents of threats and attacks were listed which was later submitted to CM. This only proves that the mass exodus was not baseless.  Mainly this incidents were reported from highly NE density areas in city like Neelasandra, Viveknagar, Anepalya, RT Nagar, Koramangla, Tilaknagar as such.

On the second day of August 16 three trains including two special trains were  left to Guwahati from Bangalore to clear the rush. Despite  clearing the rush through arranging two special trains from past two days, over 7,000 people were remained in the City Railway station on Friday August 17th. On 17 again four trains including a regular train left the city. In total around 35,000 NE residents fled from Bangalore.

Security was beefed up in highly NE density areas in the city. Even Karnataka Chief Minister, ministers from Assam and security steps taken from Karnataka state (Para military forces, Rapid Action Forces) are failed to stop NE from flee.  

As a confidence building measure, Helplines were provided to the NE residents to contact in the case of emergency. Bangalore University also expressed its solidarity for NE students. Colleges across the state organised interaction meetings for students with police officials . State education department has directed all colleges and universities to arrange special coaching classes and examinations for NE students who have fled the city.

Urging to give back the jobs to all the NE citizens who fled the city, the Assam society of Banglorewill submit a memorandum to Home Minister R Ashok. In this memorandum they request State government to convey a message to all companies and private sectors to give back their job to all NE citizens who are willing to come back Banglore..

Total 15 cases were booked in different police stations of the city for threatening NE residents. Police were  arrested 21 people for spreading threatening messages and attacking NE residents. Though several reasons were found for this mass migration,  bulk messages were the main culprit. City police have arrested three for sending threat messages in bulk which  lead to mass exodus. These messages were spread mainly to trigger the riots and to create communal unrest in the state. Anees Pasha- a mobile repair shop owner in Koramangala has been arrested for sending hate messages.

City Police commissioner Jyothi Prakash Mirji said that city will be under patrolling even after the Ramzan celebrations to ensure security for NE. 600 personnel from the CRPF and RAF, 1,500 trainee policemen, 600 home guards and 18,000 police men were deployed  in the city to avoid untoward incidents in the city.
Inorder to avoid taking chances Police department has decided to extend the duty  of the  Central forces in the city  till August 25 instead of August 23.  
According to Mr. Sanjeev Kumar people who are in Bangalore are not feeling very much comfortable here. ?Ramzan was the deadline for NE residents. Thus they are still under the trauma. Few of them are not ready to come out of their home. They are waiting the situation to become calm to come out from their houses. I hope they will come back to Bangalore when situation come back to normalcy,? he said.

Medha a NE who works as a research associate in Yashawanthpura says,?all of a sudden all these incidents were happened in Bangalore. Feeling Bangalore as a safe place I am in this city. But despite the assurances and all security measures i feel more insecure here after Ramzan,?? she said.

Conspiracy theories: many are contributing whole development to political hidden agenda. According to them in a  BJP ruled state like Karnataka minority committee don?t have enough courage to create unrest. Sleeper cells in the city must have played an active role behind all these incidents.  According to Gauri Lankesh a known face of secular organisations there is a need of high level inquiry over all these developments. ?Immediately after exodus started hundreds of RSS volunteers throngs to the city station in the name of offering help to the NE people. At one side elections are fast approaching. BJP government in the state which has lost its credibility due to recent scams, blue film incident, home stay attack facing herculean task to retain power. At another side rumors of threat to NE residents get spread in the state. RSS volunteers appears in railway stations even before police smells the development. All these raises many questions. In many parts of the city, Muslim organisations themselves holds talks with NE residents to clear the doubts,?  she says.

Politics over exodus: Even though police confirmed external hand in the mass exodus state politicians done their bit to get political millage. Governor H R Bharadwaj himself praised the way But a delegation of state Congress unit headed by its president Dr. G. Parameshwar calls on governor complaining state government failed to maintain law and order situation in the city. On the other hand at railway station Congress and RSS volunteers shouted slogans against each other. Congress leaders were silent on Bangla immigrants while RSS and BJP leaders spoke about the problem oftenly.