Pak source of 'religiously-motivated' violence: US panel

Identifying Pakistan as "a country of particular concern", a Congress-backed US religious freedom panel has said there were links between the ISI and extremist groups and that the State has become a source of "religiously-motivated violence" that also targeted India.      

"Pakistan has become a significant source of religious intolerance and religiously-motivated violence in the region and beyond," said a report released by the US Commission for International Religious Freedom here.      

"The well-planned November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, have been linked to the Pakistan-based extremist group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, a connection publicly acknowledged by Pakistan's then-Interior Minister in February 2009," it said.      

The panel recommended the State Department to place Pakistan under the category of the 'Country of Particular Concern'.      

However, the State Department has not followed the recommendations of the Commission since 2002, the panel's Vice Chairman Elizabeth Prodromou told reporters on the occasion of release of the annual report on religious freedom for 2008.      

While the report said that of late Pakistani authorities had made efforts to curb such extremists, who also threatened Pakistan's own security, it acknowledged the link between ISI and religious extremist groups. "There are extensive reports that the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies have given Taliban-associated and other extremists operating against neighbouring Afghanistan and India safe havens, operational bases, and other support," the report said.      

As the result of such support, the Afghan-Taliban were able to re-group, re-arm, and intensify cross-border attacks inside Afghanistan after being ousted by US and coalition forces, substantially increasing instability and violence in that country, it said.      

Prodromou said this year has seen the largely unchecked growth in the power and the reach of Taliban-associated extremist groups, whose members are engaged in violence both within Pakistan and abroad.      

"Pakistan's central government in Islamabad has ceded effective control of more and more of the country to these Taliban-associated extremist groups, notably of course in the Swat valley and its neighboring districts," she said.      

Prodromou expressed concern over the continued "sectarian and religiously-motivated" violence in Pakistan. "Particularly acute are violations against Shia Muslims, Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus and Sikhs. Pakistanis have repeatedly been murdered while engaging in religious worship," she said.

Charging that the Pakistan government officials do not provide adequate protection to members of religious minority communities, Prodromou said perpetrators of violence against those communities are seldom brought to justice, reflecting problems with the judicial and policing systems.      

"Now Ahmadis, who number approximately three to four million in Pakistan, are prevented by law from engaging in the full practice of their faith," she said. "They also face criminal penalties for a wide range of practices that are common to Muslims in Pakistan."      

Referring to the recent incidents in Swat, which is under the Taliban control, Prodromou said religious extremism poses serious threat to women and girls.      

"Pakistani women and girls are denied equal protection under the law. They're denied access, oftentimes, to education and to a range of other rights, in those spaces in particular that are controlled by Taliban-associated extremists."      

Besides Pakistan, the nations listed in the category of "country of particular concern" are Myanmar, North Korea, Eriteria, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The "Commission's Watch List" include Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Venezuela.      

Bangladesh, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka have been put into the category of "Additional Countries Closely Monitored."