A top US human rights official expressed concern on Thursday about recent incidents of violence in India against religious minorities, urging national leaders to be vigilant in protecting the right of Indians to freedom of worship.
“We have concerns about some of the recent incidents here in India,” said Sarah Sewall, US under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights, citing the mob killing of a Muslim man rumoured to have eaten beef and a string of attacks on churches last year.
“Much of the challenge is for political leaders, as well as religious leaders, to be setting a strong and firm example about the need to uphold constitutional protections,” Sewall told Reuters during an official tour of a mosque, church and Hindu temple in the Indian capital.
Sewall’s visit this week to New Delhi and Dharamsala, where she is due to meet Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, is part of a warming in US-India ties since tension between the allies spiked over the arrest of an Indian diplomat in the United States in 2013.
