Washington: The violation of religious freedom in Pakistan is done by the government, while in India, much of it is communal violence, a top American diplomat has said, explaining why Pakistan, and not India, has been designated as a country of particular concern by the US.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday designated Pakistan and China along with eight other countries that are of particular concern for engaging in or tolerating “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.”
The US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) had recommended to the State Department to designate India also as a country of particular concern (CPC). Notably, the State Department did not accept the recommendation.
India has rejected the USCIRF’s observations against the country in its annual report.
“We reject the observations on India in the USCIRF Annual Report. Its biased and tendentious comments against India are not new. But on this occasion, its misrepresentation has reached new levels,” the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said in April in response to media queries on the observations in the USCIRF Annual Report.
“We regard it as an organisation of particular concern and will treat it accordingly,” the spokesperson added.
On Tuesday, US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback defended the action taken against Pakistan.
“In Pakistan – a lot of their actions (violations of religious freedom) are done by the government while in India much of it’s communal violence. And then when that takes place, we try to determine whether or not there has been effective police enforcement, judicial action after communal violence takes place,” he said.
Brownback, the top American diplomat said that half of the world’s people that are locked up for apostasy or blasphemy are in Pakistani jails.