In its annual human rights report for 2002, the United States state department questions the Indian government's ability to prevent sectarian and religious violence.

"Attacks on religious minorities occurred in several states," the report says.

"The worst religious violence during the year was directed against Muslims by Hindus in Gujarat. It was alleged widely that the police and the state government in Gujarat did little to stop the violence promptly, and at times even encouraged or assisted Hindu fundamentalists in perpetrating violent acts," it says.

The report says that the Indian government "generally respects" the rights of its citizens, but "numerous problems" remain, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast.

The problems are acute in J&K, "where judicial tolerance of the government's heavy-handed counter-insurgency tactics, the refusal of security forces to obey court orders, and terrorist threats have disrupted the judicial system".

"In the Northeast, there was no clear decrease in the number of killings, despite negotiated ceasefires between the government and some insurgent forces and between some tribal groups," the report says.

Significant human rights abuses include "extra-judicial killings, including faked encounters, deaths of suspects in police custody throughout the country, and excessive use of force by security forces..."

Noting that India is a longstanding parliamentary democracy and the judiciary is independent, it says that the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttaranchal, Manipur and Goa were conducted "generally in a free and transparent manner with little violence".