NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that the lynching of a Muslim man in Jharkhand pained him and the guilty should be severely punished, while also stressing that it would be unfair to label the state a hub of mob violence as the law applied equally to incidents in all states.While condemning the Jharkhand incident where an alleged thief was lynched, Modi countered the opposition’s suggestion that the BJP-ruled state was particularly prone to such incidents. He said all such violence, whether in Jharkhand, West Bengal or Kerala , must invite uniform condemnation so that perpetrators understand that there is a strong political consensus against them.“The incident (Jharkhand lynching) has pained all of us, including myself. The culprits must get the strictest punishment. Some people in the Rajya Sabha are calling Jharkhand a hub of mob lynching and mob violence. Is this fair? Is it right to defame the entire state and everyone living there? We have no right to defame the entire state,” Modi said during his reply to the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address in the Rajya Sabha.The victim, Tabrez Ansari, was thrashed by a mob in Jharkhand’s Saraikela Kharsawan district last week for alleged theft. A few days later, he succumbed to injuries. A video of members of the mob asking him to shout “Jai Shri Ram” went viral.Police have arrested 11 of the attackers. Authorities have also suspended two cops for dereliction of duty.The PM said the law would take care of the incident and the culprits, and the political class must do more to strengthen the system. He said all political parties should stand together against such acts.The PM’s remarks that Jharkhand should not be singled out came in response to Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad ’s comment on Tuesday that the state had become a “factory of lynching and violence with Dalits and Muslims getting killed every week”.Though he did not elaborate, the PM’s reference to West Bengal and Kerala was pointed, given incidents of election-related violence in the eastern state and crimes of political vendetta in the south. In both states, BJP has claimed that its workers have faced the brunt of violence backed by the state governments.