USCIRF recommends designating India as 'country of particular concern'; New Delhi says report 'biased'

The USCIRF in the report has recommended targeted sanctions against India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the nation’s external intelligence agency. The recommendations of the report, however, are not binding.
This recommendation follows US allegations of RAW's involvement in assassination plots against Sikh separatists—a charged strongly refuted by the Indian government.
The USCIRF recommended to the US government to impose "targeted sanctions on individuals and entities, such as Vikash Yadav and RAW, for their culpability in severe violations of religious freedom by freezing their assets and/or barring their entry into the United States".
The US has charged Yadav, a former Indian government official, in the alleged foiled plot to kill Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil in 2023.
The report also called for designating India as a "country of particular concern" or CPC, for engaging in and "tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA)."
The USCIRF suggests that the US embassy and consulates incorporate religious freedom in public statements, and urges Congress to reintroduce and enforce the Transnational Repression Reporting Act of 2024 to “ensure the annual reporting of acts of transnational repression by the Indian government targeting religious minorities in the United States.”
Authorities in India continued to exploit anti-terror and financing laws, including the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) to crack down on civil society organisations and detain members of religious minorities, human rights defenders, and journalists reporting on religious freedom, it claimed.
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