National spokesperson of the BJP and Lok Sabha MP Syed Shahnawaz Hussain on Tuesday claimed that the JD(U) workers attacked a woman party activist belonging to minority community.

Talking to reporters at the state BJP office in the presence of several senior leaders, including Sushil Kumar Modi, Ravi Shankar Prasad, state BJP president Mangal Pandey, C.P. Thakur and Radhamohan Singh, Hussain said the attack on Wahida Khanam, the treasurer of the BJP’s minority cell, is not an attack on a BJP worker. It is an assault on minorities and women of Bihar.

Attacking the chief minister, Hussain said: “Nitish Kumar is playing the politics of comfort where a party is secular but at the same time a leader of that party is communal.” He also accused Nitish of dividing Muslims on caste lines.

Khanam (42), a resident of Alamganj area of Patna and associated with the BJP for the past six years, was allegedly assaulted and beaten up by some JD(U) members on Tuesday morning during the brawl between the JD(U) and the BJP workers at Beer Chand Patel Marg. Khanam has lodged an FIR against 12 persons, including JD(U) spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad and Chotu Singh.

Members of the BJP’s minority cell and BJP Mahila Morcha would stage a dharna on Wednesday at Kargil Chowk against the Nitish Kumar government’s authoritarian attitude and the attack on its women cadre.