“Across the country we are closely monitoring reports of discrimination against the Muslim communities and other religious minority groups.”
New York, March 3 (AsiaFreePress):– The new Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, Donald Lu, testified before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday said the US was concerned about human rights challenges, including the lack of State Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir and reports of ongoing human rights abuses and detention of prominent journalists.
“We have not seen the holding of Legislative Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. We have not seen free movement of journalists. We’ve seen the detention in fact of some prominent journalists in the Kashmir valley,” he said.
India’s discrimination against its Muslim minority was also raised, to which Lu replied, “Across the country we are closely monitoring reports of discrimination against the Muslim communities and other religious minority groups.”
While talking about India’s claims on cross border infiltration, Lu said cross-border insurgency has really gone down over two years.
“Similarly, across the country, we are closely monitoring reports of discrimination against Muslim communities and other religious minority groups as well as limits on free speech and NGOs. It is critical that India’s partners speak up when we witness troubling events, but we also support India’s democratic institutions which are the country’s key defence against the erosion of human rights,” he said during his opening remarks, adding that there was “growing strategic convergence” between the two countries.
On the security partnership, Mr. Lu pushed back against the notion that the security aspect of the Quad had been diluted relative to Trump administration days. His characterisations of the security aspect of both the bilateral partnership and the Quad had a clear “countering China” element to them, even if only because he was asked specific questions on whether and how China was being adequately countered.
On Kashmir, Lu said there was “troubling remaining work” and Assembly elections had not been held and prominent journalists were detained.
“We have not seen the holding of Legislative Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. We have not seen free movement of journalists. We’ve seen the detention in fact of some prominent journalists in the Kashmir valley, “ he said.
