US panel seeks justice for Gujarat riots

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Washington: The Sangh Parivar and BJP-led governments have come under severe attack from a US commission, which said the Indian government should hold to account the perpetrators of the 2002 Gujarat riots to display the country's return to its tradition of religious tolerance.

Although positive developments affecting freedom of religion and belief have been witnessed in the country since the UPA government came to power, the US Congress-mandated commission said, "Concerns about religious freedom in India remain" despite the "improved situation".

Attacks on churches and individuals largely perpetrated by those associated with 'extremist Hindu nationalist groups continue to occur', it said, citing a mob attack on a Catholic school in Maharashtra and some other incidents in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.

In its annual report, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom said violence against minorities continues to occur in the states where BJP heads the government and names these as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

The US should press India to make 'more vigorous and effective efforts to halt the violent attacks' against religious minorities that 'continue to occur with troubling regularity', it said in the report whose release coincided with violence in Vadodara which left six people dead.

It recommended that the government of India should 'hold state governments accountable' for the violence and other unlawful acts that occur in the states.