WASHINGTON, Nov 19: The United States has conveyed its concern to the Indian government over the slow pace of bringing the perpetrators of the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat to justice, the State Department said in its annual report on religious freedom.

The Indian Ministry of Minority Affairs had received 2,250 complaints of religious discrimination, mostly from the Muslim community, last year, the report noted.

“Extremists continued to view ineffective investigation and prosecution of attacks on religious minorities as a signal that they could commit such violence with impunity,” the State Department observed.

The report pointed out that there were active “anti-conversion” laws in six of the 28 states: Gujarat, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh.

The RSS opposed conversions from Hinduism and expressed the view that all citizens, regardless of their religious affiliation, should adhere to Hindu cultural values, which they claimed were the country's values, the report added.

“There were cases of communal attacks on religious minorities and their property, and allegations of police brutality.

In several instances those attacked were reportedly arrested,” the report observed. The report noted that the Gujarat government had appointed the Nanavati-Mehta Commission in 2002 to investigate anti-Muslim violence that occurred the same year.

The term of the commission was extended for the 14th time with the final report on the 2002 Gujarat communal violence now due on Dec 31.

Several victims have accused the Special Investigation Team, appointed by the Supreme Court in March 2008, of pressuring them to dilute their earlier testimony before the Nanavati-Mehta Commission.

In many of the cases tried in Gujarat's lower courts, the accused were acquitted due to lack of evidence or changes in testimony.

During the reporting period, Citizens for Justice and Peace, a group advocating for justice for victims of the 2002 violence, raised doubts about the work of the SIT investigate 10 major cases.

Several victims voiced concern that the SIT intimidated eye witnesses and produced counter witnesses to foil the prosecution.

On March 27, at the request of the Supreme Court, the SIT questioned Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi regarding the complaint filed by Zakia Jafri, a survivor of the Gulberg Society killings who had tried since 2006 to register a complaint against Modi and 60 other high level state officials for their alleged role in the violence.

The SIT submitted its final report on the Jafri complaint to the Supreme Court on May 14. The contents of the report have not been released to the public.

In 2007 the newsweekly Tehelka published secretly recorded interviews in which many of the accused admitted their roles as well as police and BJP leadership complicity in the 2002 violence.

An Indian intelligence agency, CBI, concluded in November 2009 that the tapes were authentic. Hundreds of other court cases stemming from the 2002 violence (which were not in the purview of the SIT) remained unsettled.

On Nov 3, 2009, without any prior notice, local authorities in Gujarat razed several homes of the 2002 riot victims rebuilt by NGOs in the Chandola Lake area.

Acting Gujarat High Court Chief Justice M.S. Shah directed the municipal commissioner and police commissioner of Ahmedabad to give a detailed explanation of their actions to the court.

The situation for many persons displaced by the 2002 violence remained unchanged.

At the end of the US State Department's reporting period, more than 80 Muslims accused in the Godhra train-burning case remained in jail despite various rulings by the central government's Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act Review Committee and the Gujarat High Court that POTA charges against them should be dropped, and that they should be granted bail.

The bail issue was being litigated in the Supreme Court at the end of the reporting period.

The State Department also reported that there were no reports of attacks against the Hindu community in Jammu and Kashmir by rebel forces, foreign forces, or terrorist organizations during the reporting period.

On March 27 the Jammu and Kashmir government told the state assembly that 170 Hindu temples had been damaged by militants in the valley in the past 20 years. Ninety temples have been renovated, and the government has allocated funds for the renovation of other temples.