The US has placed Pakistan on a watch list for “severe violations” of religious freedom, amid an escalating war of words between the two countries....
In a statement issued on Thursday, the state department added Pakistan to a special watch list, while re-designating a group of other countries as being of “particular concern” on the issue of religious freedom.
“In far too many places around the globe, people continue to be persecuted, unjustly prosecuted, or imprisoned for exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief,” Heather Nauert, state department spokesperson, noted in a statement.
“Today, a number of governments infringe upon individuals’ ability to adopt, change, or renounce their religion or belief.”
Under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, the US annually designates countries of particular concern, and Thursday’s statement re-designated Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
“The secretary [of state] also placed Pakistan on a Special Watch List for severe violations of religious freedom,” Nauert said.
In a 2017 report, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom noted that the Pakistani government “continued to perpetrate and tolerate systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations”.
The report singled out provisions such as the country’s blasphemy law, under which dozens of people have been sentenced to death or life imprisonment, and cited sectarian violence against religious minorities, including Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis and Shia Muslims.
Earlier this week, Pakistan hit back at the US after President Donald Trump accused the country of providing a safe haven for “terrorists”.
In response, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Pakistan’s prime minister, called a meeting of the National Security Committee, which issued a statement denouncing Trump’s remarks as “completely incomprehensible as they contradicted facts manifestly, struck with great insensitivity at the trust between two nations built over generations, and negated the decades of sacrifices made by the Pakistani nation”.
Late last month, Pakistan’s military warned the US against the possibility of taking unilateral action against armed groups on its soil, after Rex Tillerson, US secretary of state, urged Pakistan to do more to “defeat terrorist organisations”.
Over the summer, the US said it was withholding $255m in military assistance to Pakistan until the country increased efforts to crack down on internal “terrorist” groups.
No comments: