‘Can’t live here’: Afghan Sikhs

KABUL, July 2

Many among Afghanistan’s dwindling Sikh minority are considering leaving for neighbouring India, after a suicide bombing in the eastern city of Jalalabad on Sunday killed at least 13 members of the community.

The victims of the attack, claimed by militant group Islamic State, included Avtar Singh Khalsa, the only Sikh candidate in parliamentary elections this October, and Rawail Singh, a prominent community activist.

“I am clear we cannot live here anymore,” said Tejvir Singh, 35, whose uncle was killed in the blast. “Our religious practices will not be tolerated by the Islamic terrorists. We are Afghans. The government recognises us, but terrorists target us because we are not Muslims,” added Singh, secretary of a national panel of Hindus and Sikhs. 

The Sikh community now numbers fewer than 300 families in Afghanistan, Tejvir Singh added.

Following the Jalalabad attack, some Sikhs have sought shelter at the city’s Indian consulate. “We are left with two choices: to leave for India or to convert to Islam,” said Baldev Singh, who owns a book shop in Jalalabad.

India has issued long-term visas to members of Afghanistan’s Sikh and Hindu communities. “They can all live in India without any limitation,” said Vinay Kumar, India’s ambassador to Afghanistan. “The final call has to be taken by them. We are here to assist them.”

Kumar said the government was helping organise the last rites of Sikhs killed in the blast. 

But other Sikhs, with land or businesses and no ties to India, say they do not plan to leave, as Afghanistan remains their country. India has offered to take the bodies, but at least nine were cremated according to Sikh rites in Jalalabad. “We are not cowards,” said Sandeep Singh, a Sikh shopkeeper in Kabul. “Afghanistan is our country and we are not leaving anywhere.”

The attack targeted “Afghanistan’s multi-cultural fabric”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday.

India, a longstanding ally of Afghanistan, has invested in several large development projects, but heightened security risks have prompted its companies to cut back operations. The two countries’ officials have not been able to free seven Indian engineers kidnapped in May in the northern province of Baghlan. — Reuters