Thursday, May 12 2005 09:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: A US panel on religious freedom has sought the removal of India from the list of "countries of particular concern" (CPC) following "significant developments affecting freedom of belief" in the country and has instead asked for the blacklisting of Pakistan.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) also expressed "concern" over the state of religious freedom in Bangladesh and has put the nation on its watch list.

"Significant developments affecting freedom of religion or belief have taken place in India in the past year, and the Commission no longer recommends that it be designated a CPC," the commission said in its annual report.

"The Supreme Court has taken significant steps designed to bring to justice those responsible for the violence in Gujarat," it said adding, the Commission will continue to monitor the situation in India.

In recommending that Pakistan be designated a 'Country of Particular Concern', the commission says, "In Pakistan, the Government does not provide an adequate response to vigilante violence frequently perpetrated by Sunni Muslim militants against Shias, Ahmadis, Hindus, and Christians."

"Discriminatory legislation effectively bans many of the activities of the Ahmadi community. Blasphemy allegations, routinely false, result in the lengthy detention, imprisonment of, and sometimes violence against Ahmadis and Christians as well as Muslims, some of whom have been sentenced to death," the report said.

"Belated efforts to curb extremism through reform of Pakistan's thousands of Islamic religious schools appear to have had little effect so far, and many of these schools continue to provide ideological training and motivation to those who take part in violence targeting religious minorities in Pakistan and abroad," it said.

The commission is currently headed by NRI Preeta D Bansal, and includes members of both parties in Congress and the state department official for religious freedom and human rights.

The panel makes its recommendations to the Secretary of State who need not necessarily endorse all the recommendations but usually accepts them.

Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria remain on the Commission's watch list and Bangladesh has been added this year.

The Commission is concerned about "serious abuses in these countries and that Governments have either not halted repression and/or violence against persons amounting to severe violations of freedom of religion, or failed to punish those responsible for perpetrating those acts."

In Bangladesh, the Commission is concerned that democratic institutions and constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion are threatened by religious extremism and by the country's chronic political strife.

USCIRF's recommendations for 2005 include, for the first time, Uzbekistan.

In addition the commission confirmed its 2004 recommendations that the Secretary of State designate Burma, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, People's Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam as CPCs.