Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday blamed BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for the massacre of people from a minority community in Assam.
"The killing of 30 people in Assam happened because of Modi. Three days before the massacre, Modi had labelled all Muslims in Assam as Bangladeshis and tried to create venom against Muslims there," Abdullah said at a rally in Tangmarg in north Kashmir.
"The killings are a result of that."At least 32 Muslims were killed in attacks by suspected Bodo militants in Assam's Kokrajhar and Baksa districts. The attacks took place in a span of 32 hours since Thursday evening.
"The same Modi is trying to malign Kashmiris all over the country," said Abdullah, referring to a recent Modi interview in which he said Kashmir was the only place in India where people had been driven out of their native soil on a religious basis.
"If Narendra Modi becomes Prime Minister, not only is it dangerous for the country, it's dangerous for Jammu and Kashmir as well," the chief minister said.
North Kashmir will go to polls on May 7.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Abdullah elaborated, "With such strong communal overtones you run the risk of inflaming passions. It cannot be a coincidence that a Modi runs a campaign in that part of the country and paints all Muslims as Bangladeshi immigrants and three days later, 30 Muslims get killed in the area in unprovoked violence. Certainly there is a link."
He added, "All I want to say is you cannot lead this country by fear, you cannot lead by division. If you try and divide people on communal lines and if you instil fear in people, these are going to be results."
{{/usCountry}}He added, "All I want to say is you cannot lead this country by fear, you cannot lead by division. If you try and divide people on communal lines and if you instil fear in people, these are going to be results."
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