The sight of 300 policemen gathered at the City Railway Station in order to present a scene of heightened security lent reassurance to around 500 people who returned to the city from the Northeastern states early on Tuesday morning.
A special train which left Guwahati on Saturday afternoon chugged into the City Railway Station at 4.30 am with passengers who had left the city following rumours of threat to their lives.
Tuesday, however, saw people returning with hope and motivation to get back to their jobs which they had left with or without notice about 20 days ago.
“We came back because we are sure that we would not get targeted here anymore,” said Rohit Bora, a software engineer who left the city on August 17 with six of his friends. “The efforts made by the State Government here to come to Assam and reassure us as well as the fact that no riots have actually broken out has shown us that the threats were just rumours,” he said.
Hailing from the Golaghat district in Assam, Mridul Baruah, Rohit’s friend who also returned on Tuesday said that they would get in touch with their other friends who were still in Assam and reassure them of the safety in Bangalore.
“We shall tell them we are safe and ask them also to return. While this was a breakaway from Bangalore, we are anxious to resume our jobs and get back on track with our lives,” he added. The two friends also added that their company kept in touch with them constantly over the past few weeks and advised them to come back.
Also back was Antony Narzari who returned to the city with nine other members of his family in tow.
‘Will live peacefully’
Narzari, employed as a security guard in Jigani, returned from the violence- hit Kokrajhar district in Assam “Our village was not affected by the riots. But we were affected by the rumours. We waited for sometime and returned as nothing happened bad happened here,” he said.
Narzari added that policemen were providing security to them on the train and at the station too and it was reassuring.
“Even though there are no major cases of attacks, so much protection is being provided, we are confident we can live peacefully in the city,” he added.
Railway DIG speaks
Meanwhile, speaking about the security arrangements made for the Northeasterners, Railway DIG B Srikanthappa said, “There are 300 policemen present for security this morning. We had posted our staff on the train as well in order to maintain a sense of security. We also have intelligence staff operating in order to thwart any threats along with a bomb detection squad.”