*WASHINGTON: *The US on Friday issued its 2019 annual blacklist forreligious freedom violations, keeping Pakistan in it for a second year butstill ignoring India, despite its targeting of Muslims over cow slaughterallegations, occupied Kashmir lockdown and the latest citizenship act oncommunal lines.
Nine countries, including Pakistan, remained on the State Department’sannual list of “countries of particular concern” for having engaged in ortolerated “systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom”.Sudan is the only nation removed from the blacklist.
Pakistan was designated in 2018 after years of US hesitation over concernson the treatment of minorities.
According to the announcement made by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,Pakistan’s name featured in the list of countries, which are subject tosanctions over religious liberty.
“On December 18, 2019, the Department of State re-designated Burma, China,Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, andTurkmenistan as Countries of Particular Concern,” Pompeo said in thestatement.
“The Department renewed the placement of Comoros, Russia, and Uzbekistan ona Special Watch List (SWL) for governments that have engaged in ortolerated “severe violations of religious freedom, and added Cuba,Nicaragua, Nigeria, and Sudan to this list,” he added.
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“Finally, we designated al-Nusra Front, al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula,al-Qa’ida, al-Shabab, Boko Haram, the Houthis, ISIS, ISIS-Khorasan, and theTaliban as Entities of Particular Concern,” Pompeo said in the statement.
These designations under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998for “having engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, egregiousviolations of religious freedom” underscored the US commitment to protectthose who seek to exercise their freedom of religion or belief, Pompeo said.
The statement said that persecution and discrimination on the basis ofreligion or belief existed in every region of the world. “The United Statescontinues to work diligently to promote religious freedom and combatabuses,” it said.
