Hundreds of Hindi-speakers flee ethnic bloodshed
Trains leaving Assam are at full capacity, a railways spokesman said yesterday. "Seats are already full in all the trains," he said. With police reporting another six people killed by mobs and separatist rebels overnight, a sense of panic began to spread through members of the Hindi-speaking community, many of whom hail from the eastern state of Bihar.
"Life is not secure here and so we are waiting for the first possible train to get out of Assam," Madhav Prasad, a 45-year-old trader, said in the state capital Guwahati. "There are no tickets available in any of the trains that would take us to Bihar," he said. Prasad and his family of four were among hundreds of Biharis either waiting to leave or who had already fled the state by bus or train.
