Patna,  Union Minister Giriraj Singh on Tuesday cited the gruesome murder of Shraddha Walker to claim that a large number of girls like her have become victims of "love jihad".

"There is a well-planned conspiracy taking place in the country to target Hindu girls through love jihad. It is the party of Nitish Kumar, party of Lalu Prasad Yadav and the party of Rahul Gandhi that are responsible for it. They have to reply on it," he said while interacting with media persons here.

"In the past, we have seen how Muslim people took away Hindu and Sikh girls from the marriage ceremonies (Mandup) and Gurudwaras in Pakistan. Lakhs of Shraddhas become victims in India too. It is a well-planned conspiracy under which the youths of Muslim community are establishing relationship with Hindu girls and forcing them to change the religion. If Hindu girls are not ready for conversion, they have been killed like Shraddha," Singh alleged.

"The accused of Shraddha has to be punished in the strongest possible manner under the law," he said, adding that the "tukde tukde gang" are silent on the issue and called on Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad, Rahul Gandhi and Asaduddin Owaisi's parties to speak out.