Centuries old ethnic and religious rivalries exacerbated by text messages

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Thousands of people from India's north-eastern states have fled the southern city of Bangalore amid fears that they will be targeted in attacks.

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Correspondents say the rumours of attacks may be linked to clashes in the north-eastern state of Assam last month.

More than 300,000 people fled after fighting between indigenous Bodo tribes and Muslim settlers in Assam.

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The main railway station in Bangalore was flooded with migrant workers from north-eastern states after rumours spread on Wednesday.

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The railways ran special trains to the north-east to cope with the rush, officials said.

There are 250,000 people from the north-east living and working in Bangalore.

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Many of them are students, security guards and workers in the hospitality sector.

Around 4,000 fled on Wednesday, a senior police officer in the city told the BBC.

He said that rumours about possible violence were spread by text messages.

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A worker at a city restaurant from the region said there were "rumours that people from the north-east would be attacked".

The rumours came a day after a 22-year-old Tibetan student was allegedly attacked in Mysore city near Bangalore by two people who suspected him of being from the north-east.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-19278307

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Bangalore torpedoes! Good stuff!

The Bangalore torpedo was first devised by Captain McClintock, of the British Indian Army unit the Madras Sappers and Miners at Bangalore, India, in 1912. He invented it as a means of exploding booby traps and barricades left over from the Boer and Russo-Japanese Wars. The Bangalore torpedo would be exploded over a mine without the sapper having to approach closer than about three meters (ten feet).

Bangalore Torpedoes are currently manufactured by Mondial Defence Systems of Poole, UK, [1] for the UK and US armed forces. They have been used recently on operations in Afghanistan for such actions as clearing enemy supply dumps within deep cave systems.

[X Factor 1,112]

Welcome to modern era propaganda via text messages.

[Ban Hammer 13,558]

Bangalore torpedoes! Good stuff!

miclics are better.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

miclics are better.

Better for what? Not for clearing obstacles. Even the MICLIC is not 100% effective for clearing minefields. Some poor engineer in a 5 ton has to back through the breach first to make sure all the mines exploded. They were testing a better system called SLAFUE or something like that (something Lauched Air FUel Explosive) a few decades ago. I wonder what happened with that. The over-pressure of the ignited fuel was supposed to denotate all pressure activated devices, as opposed to the sympathetic detonation used by a high explosive breaching system.