NEELA PANDYA
Washington: A group of international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and religious freedom advocates have strongly pitched to look into gross human rights and religious freedom violations occurring in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and have urged for swift action by the US administration
This demand has been made in a letter to US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. The letter not only raises concerns over the state of affairs in Pakistan but also offers suggestions for corrective action. The 10 participating organizations, including the Hindu American Foundation (HAF), work actively to protect and assist religious and ethnic minority populations around the world.
“Pakistan has shown a complete and utter disregard for human rights and religious freedom and was recently labeled as a Country of Particular Concern by the US State Department for its ‘systematic, ongoing, (and) egregious violations of religious freedom’ against its religious minorities including Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Ahmadiyya Muslims, and Shia Muslims,” the letter states.
It was pointed out that religious minorities face systematic persecution and violence, and their religious freedom is severely restricted by the government through discriminatory laws.
Furthermore, the government’s apathy toward large-scale anti-minority violence by radical militant organizations has allowed such groups to operate with impunity. State and non-state actors in Pakistan have similarly suppressed the basic civil rights of ethnic minorities such as Balochs, Sindhis, Kashmiris, and the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, among others.
It was submitted that there are several ways in which Pakistan violates the human rights and religious freedom of its citizens through blasphemy laws, abductions, forced conversion, discriminatory education system, sectarian attacks and enforced disappearances and extra-judicial Killings.
The organizations have called for “targeted sanctions on Pakistan and (to) instruct USAID to focus its efforts on protecting minorities”.
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