NE erupts in anger after Delhi, B’lore racial attacks

Guwahati/Imphal: The northeast erupted in anger on Thursday after another incident of violence against people from the region was reported from NCR. Three youths from Nagaland were attacked by a group of eight persons at Sikenderpur near Gurgaon on Wednesday night.
Two of the youths sustained severe injuries. The attackers even cut the hair of one of the victims identified as James.
The incident comes close on the heels of a Manipuri youth being beaten up by miscreants in Bangalore on Tuesday for failing to speak in Kannada.
“This step motherly treatment towards people of the northeast is painful. This is a serious issue which the Central should resolve immediately,” said a Naga activist from Kohima. The Nagaland unit of the Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha (BJYM) also condemned the attacks in Gurgaon and Bangalore. Anand Mishra, a BJYM leader, said, “The deepest form of insult was meted out by cutting the hair of a youth after beating him up and asking all NE people to leave mainland India. The BJYM appeals to the the Centre to take stock of the situation which is getting from bad to worse.”
In Imphal, the Democratic Students' Alliance of Manipur (Desam) has asked the Manipur government to immediately send its officials to Bangalore to look into the incident and do the needful to ensure the culprits are punished.
“Sexual assault and harassment of NE people in various cities of India have become a regular affair,” said Desam president Moirangthem Angamba. Kuki Students’ Organisation (KSO) general secretary Seiboi Haokip told TOI, “This was not the first time people from the northeast people staying in major Indian cities have faced the wrath of racial attacks and hate crimes.” N Sema, a Naga student from Dimapur, said apart from physical assault an insult like ‘if you can eat in Karnataka you should be able to speak Kannada’ cannot be accepted. “Northeast people are also Indians and it is painful to see our own brothers and sisters being threatened in their own country,” he added.