All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen Chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for claiming at a rally this weekend that there were no Hindu terrorists.

“The man who killed Mahatma Gandhi, who was he?” Owaisi asked at a rally in Hyderabad, Times Now reported. “Nathuram Godse, who was he? Was he Owaisi’s brother? Was he not a terrorist? Tell us, Modi, who was Nathuram Godse?”

Owaisi claimed Modi would not answer this question, because “he knows he is now trapped”. The AIMIM chief claimed that the prime minister is weakening India by talking about Hindus and Muslims.

Campaigning in Maharashtra’s Wardha district on April 1, Modi had claimed that the Congress has insulted the community by branding “peace-loving Hindus” as terrorists. “Congress used the term ‘Hindu terror’...it labelled the peace-loving Hindus as terrorists...is there a single incident of Hindu terrorism?” Modi said.

Modi was implicitly referring to the National Investigation Agency court’s verdict in the 2007 Samjhauta Express blasts case, in which it acquitted all the accused: religious leader Aseemanand, Lokesh Sharma, Kamal Chauhan and Rajinder Chaudhary. As many as 68 people, including 10 Indians, were killed in the attack on board the train that connects India and Pakistan. In its chargesheet, the NIA had said the blast had targeted Pakistani Muslims. The blast was alleged by the Congress to be a case of saffron terror – violence perpetrated by Hindu nationalists. The BJP has looked at the acquittals as proof that so-called saffron terror is a myth.

At the Wardha rally, the prime minister also claimed that Congress President Rahul Gandhi decided to contest from Kerala’s Wayanad because the party is scared of facing the majority community. Hindus make up 49% of the population in Wayanad.

The 2019 General Elections will be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19, and the results announced on May 23.