Afghan Sikhs, Hindus meet Taliban officials, are assured of safety

After the meeting, representatives of the Sikh community said that they were assured of “peace and safety” by the Taliban.

Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone from Kabul, Gurnam Singh, president of the Gurdwara Dashmesh Pita Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji Singh Sabha Karte Parwan, said around 300 people — 280 Sikhs and 30-40 Hindus — have taken shelter at the gurdwara since the Taliban started taking over provinces of Afghanistan.

“But a meeting was held today which was attended by representatives of the Taliban and members of Sikh community. Taliban leaders have assured our safety and peace. They said we need not flee our country and can continue to live here peacefully. They have promised that we can practice our faith and there will be no interference with our religious practices. They have also given a number on which we can contact if there is any issue,” Singh said.

He added that Sikh and Hindu families living in Jalalabad and Ghazni have also arrived in Kabul and all were now taking shelter at two Kabul gurdwaras.

In the early 1990s, Afghanistan had over 1 lakh Sikhs and Hindus, but there was a mass exodus by members of these two communities after the Mujahideen took over in 1992.

Later, even as the Taliban took over from 1996 till 2001, little changed for these minorities.

However, the most recent triggers for Sikhs and Hindus leaving Afghanistan were two attacks that seemingly targeted minorities — a 2018 suicide bom attack on July 1, 2018, and the storming of Kabul’s Gurdwara Har Rai Sahib on March 25, 2020 by an Islamic State (IS) gunman.

“Now very few Sikhs and Hindus are stuck there. Around 400 of them have already come to Delhi after the 2020 gurdwara attack,” said Chhabol Singh, a member of the Karte Parwan gurdwara, who now lives in Delhi with his family.

However, despite assurances from the Taliban on Monday that Sikhs and Hindus would be safe in Afghanistan, members of the community are readying to leave their motherland because of grim reminders from the previous Taliban rule from 1996-2001, and incidents such as Taliban men spitting on faces of Sikhs, asking them to convert to Islam, and asking Hindus to wear tilak on foreheads and not allowing women to move out of their homes.

The Sikh community now says that they are ready to quit Afghanistan, be it for India or any other country.

“Flights have been stopped and we do not have any other option currently other than living here till we are evacuated… We hope that the Taliban will stick to its promises… But most Sikh and Hindu families now are ready to leave. Our luggage is packed. We are just waiting for India or any other country to evacuate us,” a Sikh man from Kabul, requesting anonymity, told The Indian Express.

“Who wants to leave one’s own home? No one likes to leave their own country. Wherever we will go now, we have to start our lives all over again from scratch but the Taliban is not to be trusted,” he said.

An extract from the book Afghan Hindus And Sikhs – History of A Thousand Years by Inderjeet Singh, which details the lives of Hindus and Sikhs under the previous Taliban regime, reads, “…The original Taliban were from the Kandahar region of Afghanistan. However, they were people from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia within their ranks as well. These Taliban (not Afghan ones) would spit on the road at the sight of the Sikhs…”

There is an incident that Afghan Sikhs recall, when a Taliban man in Jalalabad, instead of spitting on the road, spat in the face of a Sikh man.

“…This infuriated the Sikh… He pulled his metre rod (used to measure cloth) and hit the Taliban on his head… By this time, the other Sikh traders from nearby shops gathered at the site and they scuffled with the Taliban guards… The Taliban ran away and Sikhs started shouting Jo Bole So Nihaal Sat Sri Akaal… The matter was reported to the local Taliban chief (who was an Afghan) who disapproved spitting…”