Daily Times

A US panel on religious freedom has said the treatment of minorities in Pakistan and India is deteriorating, and it recommended sanctions be imposed on the former’s officials and government agencies and the latter’s external spy agency over its alleged involvement in plots to assassinate Sikh separatists.

The commission is a bipartisan US government advisory body that monitors religious freedom abroad and makes policy recommendations.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said, in its annual report, “In 2024, religious freedom conditions in Pakistan continued to deteriorate. Religious minority communities – particularly Christians, Hindus and Shia [Muslims] and [Ahmadis] – continued to bear the brunt of persecution and prosecutions under Pakistan’s strict blasphemy law and to suffer violence from both the police and mobs, while those responsible for such violence rarely faced legal consequences. Such conditions continued to contribute to a worsening religious and political climate of fear, intolerance, and violence.”

The report released on Tuesday pointed out that accusations of blasphemy and subsequent mob violence continued to severely impact religious minority communities in the country, as it listed several incidents in the last year.

It also noted that “violent attacks and systematic harassment” against the Ahmadi community persisted throughout the year, resulting in four deaths in total.

Another issue highlighted was the “worsening pattern of forced conversions” among the country’s Christian and Hindu women and girls.”

The commission recommended that the US administration “impose targeted sanctions on Pakistani officials and government agencies responsible for severe violations of religious freedom” by freezing those individuals’ assets and/or barring their entry into the US under human rights-related financial and visa authorities, citing specific religious freedom violations.

The panel recommended that Pakistan should be redesignated as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for engaging in “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom”, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).

The panel further suggested that the US government should enter into a binding agreement with Pakistan under Section 405(c) of IRFA to encourage substantial steps to address violations of freedom of religion or belief with benchmarks, including but not limited to: releasing blasphemy prisoners and other individuals imprisoned for their religion or beliefs; repealing blasphemy and anti-Ahmadi laws, and until such repeal, enacting reforms to make blasphemy a bailable offence, require evidence by accusers, conduct proper investigations by senior police officials, and allow authorities to dismiss unfounded accusations; enforcing existing penal code articles criminalising perjury and false accusations and holding accountable individuals who incite or participate in vigilante violence, targeted killings, forced conversion and other religiously based crimes.

Pakistan was last designated as a CPC in January 2024, while India was not.

Meanwhile, the report said regarding India: “In 2024, religious freedom conditions in India continued to deteriorate as attacks and discrimination against religious minorities continued to rise.”

Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “propagated hateful rhetoric and disinformation against Muslims and other religious minorities” during last year’s election campaign, it said.

India dismissed the report today, calling it part of a pattern of “biased and politically motivated assessments”.

“The USCIRF’s persistent attempts to misrepresent isolated incidents and cast aspersions on India’s vibrant multicultural society reflect a deliberate agenda rather than a genuine concern for religious freedom,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.

Washington has sought to build close ties with India, given its shared concerns about China’s rising influence in Asia. Analysts say that as a result, Washington has overlooked human rights issues.

Since 2023, India’s alleged targeting of Sikh separatists in the US and Canada has emerged as a wrinkle in US-India ties, with Washington charging an ex-Indian intelligence officer, Vikash Yadav, in a foiled plot. India labels Sikh separatists as security threats and has denied involvement.

Modi in April last year referred to Muslims as “infiltrators” who have “more children”.

US State Department reports on human rights and religious freedom have noted minority abuses in recent years. New Delhi calls them “deeply biased”.

Modi, who has been prime minister since 2014, denies discrimination and says his government’s policies like electrification drives and subsidy schemes help all communities.

Rights advocates point to rising hate speech, a citizenship law the UN called “fundamentally discriminatory”, anti-conversion legislation that critics say challenges freedom of belief, the revoking of Muslim majority Indian-occupied Kashmir’s special status and the demolition of properties owned by Muslims.

The panel recommended the US government designate India as a CPC for religious freedom violations and impose targeted sanctions against Yadav and India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) spy service.

However, it is unlikely the US government will sanction RAW as the panel’s recommendations are not binding.