Posted on 08/19/2012 7:12:46 AM PDT by BenLurkin
The Indian government banned bulk text messages on Friday in an attempt to halt the exodus of thousands of migrant workers from Bangalore and other major cities following false warnings of attacks on them.
An estimated 15,000 people from Assam and states in north-eastern India ... have fled India’s IT capital and other cities including Chennai, Mumbai and Pune, after receiving text messages warning them of imminent attacks.
The messages spread panic among the north-eastern minorities who were already fearful following recent clashes between members of Assam’s Bodo tribe and Bangladeshi settlers in in the state. More than 30,000 are reported to have fled the area following the clashes which continued on Thursday, but their effect has been felt throughout India. By the time a series of text warnings went viral on Wednesday thousands of migrant workers from the North-East besieged city train stations in Bangalore and other cities. Two special trains were deployed by Indian Railways to help about 6,000 people return to their homes.
The Hindu newspaper reported one text message received by a girl from Nagaland (on India’s border with Burma) working in Bangalore which warned her not to leave her house.
“People from your community are being beaten. Seven women have been killed,” it claimed.
The tensions, panic and exodus which followed appear to have their origin in a recent false news website report in Pakistan which presented a photograph of Tibetan aid workers among the bodies of 2010 earthquake victims as Burmese Buddhists who had killed members of their country’s Muslim Rohingya minority in recent clashes. Other false claims include rape, kidnap and intimidation.
But as the rumours proliferated and panic continued yesterday the government intervened again to ban bulk text messaging for two weeks.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I wish they’d ban them here also.
Only in India?
Very serious moose problem in India.
Texts are being automatically replaced with links to inspirational music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdyC1BrQd6g
a friend of mine who grew up in India has no patience with how dramatic and emotional the Indians are
My sister got bit by a moose.
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