Assurances can’t hold back NE youth in city

Assamese workers throng Kurla Terminus to catch train to Guwahati

Despite repeated assurances from employers and police, hundreds of young workers from the Northeast flocked to Kurla Terminus on Friday evening to catch a train back home. At least 400 people had gathered at the station at press time, waiting to board the biweekly Guwahati Express scheduled to leave at 8.05 am on Saturday.

"I have been working at a bakery for the last six years. The situation here is so far peaceful. In fact my employer, whom I have worked with for five years, is Muslim, and has been most supportive. But at such times, it is difficult to trust anyone, especially when the family back home is so worried," said 26-year-old Kenadhar Basumatary.

Nine members of Basumatary's family live in Sonitpur in Assam, which was recently hit by the violence between tribal Bodos and Muslim settlers.

"They have seen enough violence. My mother has not eaten for the last two days. I just want to meet her and my six-year-old daughter," Basumatary said.

Some 75 other employees of the bakery Basumatary works in have also gathered at the station.

Raja Kaman, 29, said he felt more secure in Mumbai than in Assam, but had decided to leave the city because "everyone" was leaving.

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