Northeast community members regroup, form forum

 Intensifying efforts to dispel the increasing sense of insecurity among people from the Northeast in the city, the community members on Friday formed a Northeast Forum of Hyderabad.

Its aim is to bring together all the people from that part of the country residing in the city, cutting across tribal affiliations.

 Among its members are Nagas, Mizos, Manipuris, Assamese and people from Arunachal Pradesh. Sam Khumanthem, spokesperson of the forum, said, “the main reason why we have started this is to reach out to people and convince them that Hyderabad is a safe place to stay.

 There have been rumours going around, and we do not want people to react to them. We are trying to find out, whether or not these rumours are true. Until then, people should stay calm. ” The community members, bewildered by the sudden panic attack, are yet to understand the reason for the mass exodus from the city.

 “We are trying to understand the reason, assess the ground reality and the threat perception. We are here to speak for our community and assure them that the authorities are aware of the situation and will provide security to us,” explained Sam.

 On their immediate plan of action, he said their top priority was to establish a communication link with as many people from the Northeast as possible in the twin cities.  “We want to reach out to all the community members through their respective leaders or employers.

 We want to convince one and all to report any incidents of violence or threats to the authorities concerned. The police have been very cooperative in ensuring our safety. We are telling them to be alert and stay connected,” said Sam.

 The help lines set up by the police and the Hyderabad Manipuri Society have been buzzing throughout the day.  “Many people have called to check if the rumours are true.  We also get to hear many new rumours everyday.  We are in a helpless and weird situation.  There is a threat perception.

 But all we can do now is stay calm and not react to anything.  We appeal to our people that Hyderabad is safe,” said Thongma Bipin, a member of the Hyderabad Manipuri Society.

 According to him, there was a report that a student from Manipur was threatened at Chintalbasti but it couldn’t be independently verified. “This time hopefully we will be filing a complaint with the police. Problem is that people are afraid of filing police complaints.  They aren't coming out,” said Bipin.