Social media giant Twitter has removed a cartoon by India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that showed Muslim men in skull caps being hung by a noose.
The party's unit in western Gujarat state had posted the cartoon on its official social media account hailing a special court in the state for sentencing 38 convicts to death for a series of bombings that shook the city of Ahmedabad in 2008.
The caricature showed the men hanging by a noose with the words “Satyamev Jayate” (Truth Alone Triumphs) and also "no mercy to the perpetrators of terror."
The post triggered massive outrage on social media, with people criticizing the ruling party for the "anti-Muslim" post.
"Cartoons were used widely in genocides of Jews in Germany & Tutsis in Rwanda. We expect nothing better from BJP, but should we assume that this appeals to BJP’s voters?" Indian Muslim leader and parliament member Asaduddin Owaisi wrote on Twitter.
Sanjay Jha, the former spokesman for India’s main opposition party the Indian National Congress, also criticized the ruling party.
"So a hateful advertisement against Muslims was backed by the BJP in Gujarat. Twitter has removed it. This is New India?" he wrote on Twitter.
He also said that "all those who have voted for BJP" and Prime Minister Narendra Modi "are stakeholders in the disintegration of our secular democracy."
The BJP, however, said it was not against any community.
"We had no intention to target any community through the sketch. It was based on photographs of the convicts published by the newspapers. But anti-social elements reported it and it was removed by Twitter and other platforms as well," Yagnesh Dave, the BJP's media cell convener in Gujarat, told Anadolu Agency.
On July 26, 2008, a series of 21 bomb blasts hit Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat, within a span of 70 minutes, killing 57 people and injuring over 200 others.