(This story originally appeared in on Aug 18, 2012)

BANGALORE/CHENNAI/HYDERABAD: Attacks on people from the northeast in Bangalore and threat calls to students in Hyderabad on Friday deepened insecurity among workers and students and hundreds crammed into trains in Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and even Goa, to head home.Four Assamese men were stopped by unidentified assailants and attacked with soda bottles, said a complaint filed at the Ashoknagar police station in Bangalore. Elsewhere, three Manipuri men were beaten up near a bus shelter and in the third attack, a 23-year-old Manipuri man was thrashed while buying vegetables.Karnataka home minister R Ashoka and law minister S Suresh Kumar held meetings with various trade organizations to instill confidence among migrants from the northeast working in their set-ups. On Friday, 2,000 people belonging to the northeast states booked train tickets out of Bangalore.In Lucknow, public property worth lakhs was damaged when a group went berserk in the old city area while protesting the recent violence in Assam In the past two days, as many as 16,000 people from the Northeast have fled Karnataka, state home minister R Ashoka said on Friday. "Due to the government's efforts, exodus has reduced," he said. "Six cases have been booked so far. We have sought the Centre's help. Around 600 Rapid Action Force personnel will be deployed in Bangalore, Mysore and Mangalore for additional security. The RAF will be in addition to the Karnataka State Reserve Police battalion," he said.Officials also planned flag marches in the sensitive areas of Bangalore.As Bangalore's glitzy restaurants and spas scaled down services because of the lack of staff, students from Hyderabad and Osmania universities joined wage workers from Manipur, Nagaland , Mizoram and Assam in packing bags and heading home. No attack has been reported from Chennai, Bangalore or Hyderabad in the last several days, but that hasn't halted the stream of people headed out.An estimated 6,000 people passed through Bengal's Howrah station on two trains on Friday, an exodus not seen since Partition.About 250 students left Hyderabad as text messages circulated, saying unknown groups had set an August 20 deadline for them to leave the city. So far, at least 15 students from the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, 16 from the University of Hyderabad and 75 from Osmania University have left for their hometowns even as many colleges conducted counselling sessions for the students."Two of us from the CIEFL campus have received intimidating calls asking us to leave the campus. When the news spread , more students wanted to leave the campus," said a student from Assam who left the city on Friday."My family and friends asked me to return to Guwahati immediately. I shall not go back to Bangalore till the situation improves, even if it means giving up the course," said Raj Payeng, a 20-year-old Guwahati resident who left his hardware engineering course midway."We assembled at Bangalore station on Wednesday and are waiting for the train to enter Assam," said Mitinga Brahma of Kokrajhar as Rangila Najoria of Jorhat nodded. Both worked in production units in Bangalore.Two Assam ministers — Pradyut Bordoloi and Rockybul Hussain — reached Hyderabad on Friday to reassure students not to be intimidated by the rumours.