Pakistan Once Again Listed As 'Country Of Particular Concern' By US

The United States Department of State has added Pakistan again to the list, ‘country of particular concern’, for violation of religious freedom.

The watch-list consists of those countries which are considered to be involved in persecution and discrimination on the basis of religion or belief.

The United States State Department issued a press release on Wednesday, which said that the United States government had identified Pakistan as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’, for having engaged in or tolerated ‘systematic violations of religious freedom’.

Other countries in the list included in the list are Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.

The US State Department had earlier said that the top foreign policy priority of the Trump government was protection of religious freedom.

It said that that persecution and discrimination existed in every region of the world and that the US continued to work diligently to promote religious freedom.



It further said that the designation of countries in the ‘country of particular concern’ list allowed the United States to protect religious freedom.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s neighbour India, which has recently received a lot of attention for its rights violations following  abrogation of Article 370 and its passage of Citizenship Amendment Act, is not on the list.

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