The sad story of an IT powerhouse called Bangalore

[Crookbond]

North-East scare: Govt blocks 125 Internet platforms, say sources www.ndtv.com/article/india/north-east-scare-govt-blocks-125-internet-platforms-say-sources-256978

The Ministry of Home Affairs has ordered blocking of 254 Internet platforms in the wake of morphed online photos and hate messages being created and circulated, leading to a scare among the north-eastern community, say sources. According to reports, 125 of these platforms have already been blocked. Sources in the government say that at least 38 percent of the inflammatory material created has been uploaded from Pakistan. Islamabad has asked for evidence that the doctored images and hate messages originated in Pakistan. The country's Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Sunday promised India's Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde an investigation if proof is provided. Mr Malik told NDTV, "He (Mr Shinde) told me that he has information that these SMS-es originated from Pakistan, but I informed him (Mr Shinde) that at an official level we don't have any such information. And if India gives us any information regarding this, we'll investigate." Over the weekend, the Centre said a bulk of the rumours that that triggered a scare among people from the North East in cities like Bangalore and Pune, originated in Pakistan. A government report says social media and SMS-es were used to spread panic among people; the uploading and circulation of such content began on July 13, the report says, around the time when the ethnic clashes in Assam began. Almost 80 people have died in those clashes and over four lakh people were displaced, many of whom have now returned to their homes. The rumours caused panic and though no untoward incident was reported, thousands of people from the North East crowded railway stations to go back home. Special trains had to be arranged to meet the demand even as the central government and state governments repeatedly assured people that there was nothing to fear and that they should not leave. The panic has ebbed. There are no longer special trains being organized from cities like Bangalore and Pune to Guwahati, and many of those who reached the Assam capital said they would return soon to those cities to get back to work or college. The government's initial report, which NDTV has gained exclusive access to, shows how social media was used to spread panic among people from the North-East living in different parts of the country. The report says that a socio-political Pakistani group may have begun the process of doctoring images and spreading them across social networking sites like Facebook; a few Indian groups, though, are also suspected to have played a role. The report further says that pictures of earthquakes in Thailand and Tibet were morphed and circulated that triggered the panic. It also adds that fake profiles were created around the end of last month to push the online content aggressively on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to reportedly provoke violence. Several Indians have been found to have created these fake profiles to circulate pictures and link clashes in Myanmar and Assam. The reports further states that an extremist group "is waging an online campaign after the outbreak of violent clashes in Myanmar." The report also details how some of the right-wing extremists retaliated once the campaign of morphed pictures started.

[Crookbond]

People from northeast head back to Bangalore http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/People-from-northeast-head-back-to-Bangalore/articleshow/15574363.cms

GUWAHATI/BANGALORE: Reflecting a gradual return to normalcy after the panic exodus, people from the northeast headed back to Bangalore in special trains from Guwahati and the situation also eased today in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. A spokesman for the Northeast Frontier Railway Nripen Bhattacharya said in Guwahati that three special trains had left for Bangalore yesterday taking back in a phased manner those who had fled from the capital of Karnataka fearing attacks on them sparked by rumours in the wake of violence in Assam The official, however, could not give the exact number of people returning to Bangalore. Government officials said it would take two to three days before all of them returned to Bangalore and other cities like Pune and Chennai from where thousands of fear-stricken Northeasterners had fled. After four days of panic-driven exodus of Northeasterners, the situation eased today with police and railway officials saying it has stopped in Karnataka and reduced to a trickle in Tamil Nadu. In contrast to the exodus of people from the northeast, it was a normal situation in Bangalore which was turned into a virtual fortress amid tight security. Upto 30,000 people had fled the country's IT capital since late last week which abated yesterday after the government went overdrive to instil confidence in the people from northeast. Over 18,000 police personnel, bolstered by Rapid Action Force (RAF) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), kept a hawk-like vigil in Bangalore with Ramzan also being celebrated today. "The situation is absolutely peaceful and normal ... People from the northeast are going about their chores without any disturbance and the exodus has completely stopped", additional commissioner of police (law and order) Suneel Kumar told PTI. Bangalore Police commissioner Jyothi Prakash Mirji said they have held several peace committee meetings with community leaders and police also intensified night patrolling. Railways, which ran additional trains to Guwahati after the sudden rush of fleeing northeasterners, did not operate any special services for the second consecutive day.

Lets report the good things as well!

[Swing_n_Speed]

Came across this vid. It depicts how Russian anti-riot forces operate. Something our own cops back home need to learn.