The Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan is being used by the BJP and Hindutva forces to whip up feelings against Muslims and spread Islamophobia, the CPI(M) alleged on Thursday.

The Left party in an editorial in its mouthpiece People's Democracy also claimed that there have been incidents in which people from the community have been victims of violence over the last few weeks.

The stray voices of some fundamentalist Muslim clerics, who have praised the Taliban, have become the pretext for the "likes of (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi) Adityanath to raise the bogey of Talibanism in India", the CPI(M) said.

"The everyday violence against Muslims is showing a disturbing pattern. In the month of August, there have been at least four recorded cases of gratuitous violence against Muslims in the streets of some cities and small towns in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.The targets of such attacks were poor Muslims such as street vendors, auto rickshaw drivers and even beggars," it said.

The CPI(M) alleged that in all the attacks, videos were made and circulated. The purpose seems to be to publicise these acts of violence and glorify the "valour" of the attackers, it said.

"Such casual violence directed against poor Muslims going about earning their livelihood are pathological symptoms of the fascistic activities of Hindutva outfits on the ground at a time when the leadership of the government in BJP- ruled states and at the Centre are becoming more "aggressive about implementing the Hindutva agenda," the party said.

"The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is being utilised by the BJP and the Hindutva forces as a golden opportunity to whip up feelings against Muslims and spread Islamophobia... If only the Hindutva zealots would look at the mirror and see themselves, they would find a mirror image of the Taliban," the CPI(M) said.

The Taliban swept across Afghanistan this month, seizing control of almost all key towns and cities in the backdrop of withdrawal of the US forces that began on May 1.

On August 15, the capital city Kabul also fell to the Taliban, even as a large number of Afghans attempted in vain to flee the war-torn nation.