Human Rights Watch says despite some improvements, Afghanistan continues to suffer from serious instability, warlords and armed factions that dominate most of the country and routinely abuse human rights outside Kabul. In neighboring Pakistan, it says the military has tightened its grip on power, and violence against women and religious minorities remains the main concern. The report notes that the new coalition government in India has taken some positive steps on human rights, including the repeal of an anti-terrorism act known as "POTA" and re-evaluation of the country's educational policies. But it says despite tough laws, discrimination based on caste and social grounds continues widely in practice. In Sri Lanka, the report says the 21-year civil war has resulted in atrocities by both the government and the Tamil rebels. The rebels it says have a history of recruiting children as soldiers, and police continue to torture detainees. Human Rights Watch says the government in Nepal is fighting a brutal war with Maoist rebels and has not improved its record despite a pledge to do so. The Maoist rebels, it says, have forcibly abducted students from school for political. Concerns have been made on Bangladesh's situation as well. The report says that Bangladesh has been in the grip of severe political unrest since an August 21 grenade attack on a rally by the opposition Awami League party. Eighteen people died in the attack and many observers consider the attack to have been an assassination attempt on the oppsition leader Sheikh Hasina.
