FO slams US move to keep Pakistan in, India out of religious freedom blacklist.

ISLAMABAD -- Islamabad has categorically rejected the US State Department's 'unilateral and arbitrary' decision of keeping Pakistan in its 2019 annual blacklist for religious freedom violations. Pakistan was kept in the list for a second year while India was ignored, despite its targeting of Muslims over cow slaughter allegations, occupied Kashmir lockdown and the latest citizenship act on communal lines. Nine countries, including Pakistan, remained on the State Department's annual list of 'countries of particular concern' for having engaged in or tolerated 'systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom'.

Sudan is the only nation removed from the blacklist. Pakistan was designated in 2018 after years of US hesitation over concerns on the...