Pandher

MEMORANDUM **

Sohan Singh Pandher, a native and citizen of India, petitions for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals’ (“BIA” or “Board”) decision dismissing his appeal *521 from an Immigration Judge’s (“IJ”) denial of his applications for asylum and withholding of removal, and request for relief under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”). Because the parties are familiar with the factual and procedural history of this case, we need not recount it here.

I

The BIA’s decision to affirm the IJ’s denial of asylum and withholding of removal is not supported by substantial evidence. See Ramos-Vasquez v. INS, 57 F.3d 857, 861 (9th Cir.1995) (reviewing denial of asylum and withholding of removal for substantial evidence). Although the BIA overturned the IJ’s adverse credibility determination and finding of past persecution, it found that Pandher did not have a well-founded fear of future persecution. The BIA relied on the fact that background evidence in the record indicated improved country conditions, that Pandher did not testify to harm between his release in 1992 and when he left India in 1997, and that Pandher’s past persecution was not sufficiently severe to qualify for a…