N-E natives should return to City: Ashoka

 Home Minister R Ashoka has appealed to the North-Eastern natives, who fled Bangalore fearing attacks on them, to return to the City immediately.

“I myself visited many areas where North-Easterners reside in large numbers in the City. The situation is peaceful and hence they should return to Bangalore,” he said.
Addressing mediapersons on Tuesday after meeting Gyari Dolma, the visiting Home Minister of the Tibetan government in exile, Ashoka said security was tight in the City and there was no scope for any untoward incident. As many as 20 people have been taken into police custody for allegedly spreading rumours on possible attacks on North-Eastern migrants and for threatening them.

The Centre has already declared that the rumours originated from Pakistan, he said. The government is collecting information from those arrested in Bangalore and share it with the Centre, he added.

Ashoka said there were about 3.5 lakh North-Easterners in the State. Of these, 25,000 have left for their home states. If required, he said, he would visit these states and convince them to return to Bangalore.

Dolma appreciated the efforts of the Karnataka government to restore normalcy in the City and in other parts of the State.

She said about 4,000 Tibetans lived in Karnataka and that she would visit their camps and explain to them they were safe in the State.