US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said the US is monitoring what he described as a rise in human rights abuses in India by some officials, in a rare direct rebuke by Washington of the South Asian nation’s rights record, TRT World reported.

“We regularly engage with our Indian partners on these shared values (of human rights) and to that end, we are monitoring some recent concerning developments in India, including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police and prison officials,” Blinken said on Monday in a joint press briefing with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, the report said.

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Blinken did not elaborate. Singh and Jaishankar, who spoke after Blinken at the briefing, did not comment on the human rights issue.

Blinken’s remarks came days after US Representative Ilhan Omar questioned the alleged reluctance of the US government to criticise Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on human rights.

“What does Modi need to do to India’s Muslim population before we will stop considering them a partner in peace?” Omar, who belongs to President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party, said last week.