Pune, one of the emergingcities was rattled with rumours, confusion and exodus last week. Just aroundthe time when on August 11 Mumbai mob riots took place, Pune faced its ownproblem. There were attacks on people hailing from the North-East “ followingwhich there was an exodus and in a week’s time, more than 3,000 to 4,000 peoplefled Pune.
But why Pune became avictim has an interesting analysis. Pune is the cultural capital ofMaharashtra.
Pune the cultural capital of Maharashtra, is a fast-growing cityand densely-populated.
"The city is very unique....it iscosmopolitan, it is fast-growing, there is anonymity, flats systems are on topof the housing infrastructure, there are dense pockets of differentcommunities," highly-placed sources in the Intelligence department set upsaid. Moreover, the city has strategic importance -- right from being theheadquarters of Indian Army's Southern Command to having Indian Air Forcebase and a training establishment of the Indian Navy and the tri-services traininginstitute, the National Defence Academy, Pune is always on the radarof terror networks.
"It also has a huge amount ofstudent population including those who come from foreign countries because ofthe city's reputation as Oxford of the East....it also has a huge population ofpeople from other states, who work in IT/BPOs," Intelligence departmentsources said.
Since the city and itssuburbs have a high rate of computer literacy, access to IT and a large numberof students “ it became an easy victim of the cyber war unleashed fromPakistan.
Meanwhile,The Assam Association-Mumbai (TAAM) has expressed concern over theattacks on students hailing from the North-East in Pune and hoped that thesituation would normalise soon. "We are sad....it is extremely unfortunate,"TAAM President Paban Kumar Kataky said, when sought for his reactions on thisissue in the wake of the developments involving Pune. However, Kataky, to apointed question, said that as of now they have decided not to take up theissue with the Maharashtra government, district authorities and police becauseit may aggravate the situation.
