ISLAMABAD – Banned outfits are targeting minorities in Pakistan, revealedthe annual reportlink>ofthe United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

“In 2017, religious minorities in Pakistan, including Hindus, Christians,Sikhs, Ahmadis…continued to face attacks and discrimination from extremistgroups and society at large,” the report states, adding that as many as 231people were killed and 691 injured in such incidents in Pakistan last year.

The report states that the government of Pakistan “failed to protect thesegroups adequately, and it perpetrated systematic, ongoing, egregiousreligious freedom violations.”

It was noted that forced conversions of non-Muslims continued despite thepassage of the Hindu Marriage Act, which grants greater rights in familylaw for Hindu citizens.

“The entry of fundamentalist and often extremist, religious parties intothe political arena in advance of July 2018 national elections furtherthreatens religious minorities’ already precarious status in the country,”it adds.

In December 2017, the State Department named Pakistan as the first, andonly country on its “Special Watch List,” a new category created byDecember 2016 amendments to IRFA.

The report also noted that the women’s rights movement in Pakistan suffereda blow in February 2018 with the death of Asma Jahangir, who was a legalpioneer for the rights of religious minorities and women in Pakistan andinternationally.

The incident of Mashal Khan, a college student and social activist who wasmurdered in broad daylight by a mob of students and administrators at AbdulWali Khan University after he was accused of blasphemy, is also given aspecial mention in the report.

Moreover, USCIRF also condemned the increase in religious violence inIndia.

“In 2017, religious freedom conditions continued a downward trend in India.India’s history as a multicultural and multireligious society remainedthreatened by an increasingly exclusionary conception of national identitybased on religion,” it read.

The report added, “during the year, Hindu-nationalist groups sought to“Saffronize” India through violence, intimidation, and harassment againstnon-Hindus and Hindu Dalits.”