Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses his Bharatiya Janata Party's campaign rally in support of East Delhi candidates ahead of Delhi state elections in Delhi, India, Feb. 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Partha Sarkar)

Hindu militants attacked and set fire to the home of a former Indian foreign minister, police said, in the latest incident of religious violence that critics say has been inflamed under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, according to a report by AFP on Tuesday.

Salman Khurshid, a Muslim from the main opposition Congress party, published a book in October in which he compared the kind of Hindu nationalism that has flourished under Modi to extremist Islamic groups like ISIS.

Police said a mob of around 20 people from a hard-line local Hindu group massed outside Khurshid's house near the northern city of Nainital on Monday.

"They shouted slogans, threw stones, broke several windows, ransacked [the entry] and set fire [to a door]," local police chief Jagdish Chandra told AFP. 

The Times of India reported that the hard-line group had set fire to an effigy of Khurshid, fired shots and threatened the daughter-in-law of the caretaker with a gun. 

Khurshid, who served as foreign minister from 2012-14, was away with his family at the time of the incident but posted images of the aftermath of the attack on social media.

"Shame is too ineffective a word," Khurshid, 68, said on social media.

"I hoped to open these doors to my friends who have left this calling card. Am I still wrong to say this cannot be Hinduism," he added.

Activists say that religious minorities in Hindu-majority India have faced increased levels of discrimination and violence since Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014.

AFP