'World worse off when religious rights compromised, let's speak out strongly in favour of religious freedom': Pompeo

Asserting that the world is worse off when religious rights are compromised, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday called for speaking "strongly" in favour of religious freedom, days after the US alleged that mob attacks by violent extremist Hindu groups against minority communities, particularly Muslims, continued in India in 2018.

Last week the State Department, in its annual 2018 International Religious Freedom Report had alleged that "mob attacks by violent extremist Hindu groups against minority communities, particularly Muslims, continued in India in 2018, amid rumours that victims had traded or killed cows for beef", evoking a sharp reaction from the ruling BJP which said it shows a clear bias against the Modi government.

"India is the birthplace of four major world religions. Let's stand up together for religious freedom for all, let's speak out strongly together in favour of those rights for whenever we do compromise those rights, the world is worse off," Pompeo said in his 'India policy speech' at the India International Centre here.

Apart from referring to violence against minorities, the US report, released on June 21, also alleged that some senior leaders of the BJP "made inflammatory speeches against minority communities".

Reacting sharply to the report, BJP media head and Rajya Sabha MP Anil Baluni in a statement said, "the basic presumption in this report that there is some grand design behind anti-minority violence is simply false. On the contrary, in most of such cases, these instances are carried out as a result of local disputes and by (people with) criminal mindsets."