The BJP on Sunday seized on Mumbai police’s claim that the man held on suspicion of stabbing Saif Ali Khan is a Bangladeshi, castigating Opposition parties’ “vote bank” politics and looking to polarise voters ahead of the February 5 Delhi Assembly elections.

BJP social media head Amit Malviya demanded an apology from Opposition parties for allegedly using the attack on Saif to “malign Hindus”, while his party colleagues raised the bogey of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and Rohingyas posing a security threat to the country.

Malviya did not say how the Opposition had maligned Hindus. Some social media users had blamed the BJP-RSS for the stabbing, referring to CCTV footage of the suspected attacker wearing a “saffron” scarf and flagging past Rightwing trolling of Saif for naming one of his sons Taimur, also the name of a 14th-century invader.

The Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena hit back at the BJP, accusing Union home minister Amit Shah of having turned India’s borders “so porous” that “Bangladeshis not just enter illegally but indulge in crimes….”

“Mumbai Police has confirmed that Mohammad Shariful Islam, who attacked Saif Ali Khan, is an illegal resident, from Bangladesh, and had assumed a Hindu identity,” Malviya posted on X.

“Political parties, like the Congress, TMC, among others in the I.N.D.I Alliance, that exploit illegal immigrants as vote banks and had sought to communalise this incident, to malign Hindus should apologise.”

The issue reverberated in the Delhi poll arena given the BJP’s accusation that the ruling AAP has been sheltering illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants in the national capital.

“The arrest (in Mumbai) shows that Bangladeshis and Rohingyas are a threat to the security of the country and Delhi,” Delhi BJP president Virendraa Sachdeva
told reporters.

“Arvind Kejriwal should now answer why Arvind Kejriwal works to nurture criminals who are a threat to the country’s security.”

The attack on Saif, after the firing outside the home of Salman Khan and the death threats to him by jailed gangster Lawrence Boshnoi, had thickened speculation about the Khans of Bollywood being targeted.

Maharashtra deputy chief minister and NCP chief Ajit Pawar claimed the arrested man had first come to Calcutta and then travelled to Mumbai. He attacked the Opposition for criticising the law-and-order situation in Mumbai.

“After the attack on actor Saif Ali Khan, some Opposition leaders said that law and order had collapsed in Mumbai. But the reality is that the accused came from Bangladesh. First, he came to Kolkata and then to Mumbai,” Pawar said.

“He was not aware that it was the house of some film star. He just entered the house with the intention of robbery.”

Kailash Vijayvargiya, Madhya Pradesh minister and the BJP’s former Bengal minder, accused the Trinamool Congress of aiding illegal Bangladeshi immigration into India.

“Many Bangladeshis are being smuggled into India by the Bengal government. Their Aadhaar cards are being made in Hindu names. After coming here, they are committing crimes,” Vijayvargiya told news agency ANI.

Maharashtra BJP leader Kirit Somaiya urged the state police to deport all the Bangladeshis and Rohingyas living in Mumbai.

Priyanka Chaturvedi, Sena (UBT) spokesperson and MP, sought to remind the BJP that it rules four of the five states bordering Bangladesh and accused it of playing politics over the issue.

While the BJP is part of the government in Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya, it's the Zoram People's Movement that rules Mizoram.

“Will the country’s home minister and the state government answer how many illegal Bangladeshi immigrants are found residing in the state of Maharashtra and what has been the state government and centre’s policy to handle this? Besides politics, what is being done to strengthen the law and order in the state?” Chaturvedi tweeted.

“Shame on India’s Home Minister that he has made our borders so porous that these Bangladeshis not just enter illegally but indulge in crimes in the city. Who is helping them cross the border? How is it so easy for them to acquire documents, get jobs and then indulge in heinous crimes?”

She added: “Before calling other leaders as traitors HM (home minister) should know that his failure in curbing illegal immigration is an act of treason.”