Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday urged residents of the state not to provide shelter to those displaced during recent eviction drives, PTI reported.

He claimed that if the residents were to do so, the position of “our people”, which had improved on account of the eviction drives, would worsen again.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader said that those who had encroached on public land should return to where they came from and that the government would have no objection to it.

“Our people should not give them shelter,” Sarma said, according to PTI. “Otherwise, our position which has become little good through evictions and other steps, will become bad again.”

Since June 16, seven major eviction drives have taken place in Assam, resulting in about 5,300 families, mostly Bengali-origin Muslims, being displaced from their homes. Many of them have been forced to live without shelter or in makeshift huts made up of tarpaulin tents and sheets beside roads.

In several places, displaced residents have accused the state government of selective targeting during the drive based on religion and ethnic identity, questioning why only Muslims were evicted.

Sarma on Monday alleged that the alleged encroachers were at the root of several problems in the state. He claimed that they were planting betel nut trees and setting up fisheries in forest areas.

“Who is doing ‘love jihad’?” Sarma asked. “It is happening on us. Who has done ‘land jihad’? It is happening on us. We are the ones who should cry but they are shedding tears.”

Love jihad is a Hindutva conspiracy theory that holds that Muslim men pose as Hindus to trick Hindu women into relationships with the aim of converting them to Islam. “Land jihad” is another Hindutva conspiracy theory that Muslims plot to usurp public land by illegally building structures on it.

Sarma on Monday said that about 29 lakh bighas, or over 9.5 lakh acres, of land is under encroachment in Assam, PTI reported.

He had earlier claimed that encroachments had been removed from 1.29 lakh bighas, or over 42,500 acres, of land in the past four years. He alleged that “illegal Bangladeshis and doubtful citizens” had been in possession of these tracts of land.