India Raises Social Media Misuse With Pakistan, Situation Normal in South

New Delhi: India Sunday took up the issue of social media sites' misuse by Pakistan-based elements in whipping up communal sentiments in the country with Pakistan, even as Congress chief Sonia Gandhi sought action against those behind the Assam violence and subsequent mistreatment of people from the northeast.

Meanwhile, no further incident was reported from Bangalore, where security was tightened ahead of Eid Monday, while the Karnataka government appealed to all those people from the notheast who had fled following threats or rumoured threats to return, assuring them of all security.

According to home ministry officials, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik, who called him up, that elements based in Pakistan used such sites to circulate false pictures and stories so as to whip up communal sentiments in India.

Thousands of students from northeast fled the southern Indian cities of Bangalore and Chennai after hate messages were spread through mobile phones and on Facebook in the past two days promising retaliation for the ethnic violence in the northeastern state of Assam last month.

Expressing her "deep pain" at the ethnic violence in Assam, Gandhi condemned the subsequent mistreatment faced by people from northeast in some states and called for strict action against the guilty.