The annual report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) claims that banned outfits are targeting minorities in Pakistan.
The report stated ,“In 2017, religious minorities in Pakistan, including Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, and Ahmadi continued to face attacks and discrimination from extremist groups and society at large.”
It also added that in 2017, almost 231 people were killed and 691 injured in such incidents in Pakistan.
The report read that the government of Pakistan “failed to protect these groups adequately, and it perpetrated systematic, ongoing, egregious religious freedom violations.”
Despite the passage of the Hindu Marriage Act, which gives greater rights in family law for Hindu citizens, the forced conversion of non-muslims continued, the report claims.
The report added, “The entry of fundamentalist and often extremist, religious parties into the political arena in advance of July 2018 national elections further threatens religious minorities’ already precarious status in the country.”
The movement also observed that the women’s rights movement in Pakistan suffered a major blow in 2018 when a women’s rights activist and the pioneer for the rights of religious minorities, Asma Jahangir died.
Mashal Khan incident, in which an angry mob killed a student over blasphemy allegations, is also quoted in the report.
Moreover, the USCIRF report also condemned the increase in religious extremism in India.
The report read, “In 2017, religious freedom conditions continued a downward trend in India. India’s history as a multicultural and multireligious society remained threatened by an increasingly exclusionary conception of national identity based on religion.”
“During the year, Hindu-nationalist groups sought to “Saffronize” India through violence, intimidation, and harassment against non-Hindus and Hindu Dalits,” the report added.
At the launch of the report, USCIRF Chairman Daniel Mark said that the conditions of religious freedom have deteriorated.
He stated, “Sadly, religious freedom conditions deteriorated in many countries in 2017, often due to increasing authoritarianism or under the guise of countering terrorism.”
In December 2017, the State Department named Pakistan as the first, and only country on its “Special Watch List,” a new category created by December 2016 amendments to IRFA.
