Forty-one Muslims were killed by suspected tribal militants last week in India's remote state of Assam in the latest atrocity against people accused of being immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, according to Reuters.
Police and local residents said three separate attacks were carried out by militants from the ethnic Bodo community as punishment for Muslims who failed to support their local candidate in the election, which is still going on across India, Reuters reported.
The worst outbreak of communal violence in the northeastern region since 2012 has compounded fears among Muslims living along the India-Bangladesh border who feel they are being singled out by the man widely expected to be India's next prime minister Narendra Modi, according to Reuters.
The Hindu nationalist candidate, campaigning mainly on a ticket of economic growth, has ratcheted up rhetoric against illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, saying they should have their "bags packed" ready to be sent home should he win, Reuters reported.
"The infiltrators have to go, go and go," Modi said on Wednesday in West Bengal, which also borders Bangladesh, according to Reuters. "Don't you think they have made your life miserable?"
A few miles from Narayanguri, in an area prone to religious violence, Modi made a similar speech a few days before the massacres, warning that Bangladeshis were taking over the state, Reuters reported.
The prospect of an Indian prime minister forcing Muslims of Bangladeshi origin to return home has also raised alarm bells in Dhaka, where the government said it would resist any such move, according to Reuters.
"If they do it, the relationship between the two countries will be jeopardized, it will be damaged," said Bangladesh Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Reuters reported. "India, being a ... big country, a democratic country, a secular country, cannot take such a position."
