The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The name of Bangladesh has been dropped from the USA's 'Watch List', of countries violating human rights and freedom of religion, says a Canada based Bengali weekly.

The religious freedom and human rights situations of 198 countries got place in the report. USA Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently revealed the report, the weekly said.

USA considers that with the AL-led alliance government assuming power the members of the minority communities were no longer subjected to repression and violation of human rights, the weekly said.

The name of Bangladesh was in the USA Watch list from 2005-2008 but with the change of government the situation has improved. But the country however, still remains in the list of countries under close monitoring.

A total of 21 countries including Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, China, Afghanistan, Sudan, Nigeria, North Korea, Turkey, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia, Turkistan, Russia, Somalia, Venezuela and Uzbekistan were placed in the watch list.

The report mentioned that extremists were involved in the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutiny. The southern region of the country has been described as safe haven for militants, the weekly said.