‘Sikhs keen to leave Afghanistan after Taliban took over’

Fearing for their lives after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, Sikh and Hindu families are keen to leave the country, a Kabul-based Sikh businessman said on Tuesday.

He, however, added that some Taliban leaders have assured Sikhs and Hindus of their safety.

Afghan businessman Gurdeep Singh (name changed) said the Taliban have taken full control of Afghanistan's capital Kabul. He said the Afghan Sikhs would prefer taking asylum in the USA or Canada rather than India owing to their past experience there.

He said many Sikh families, who had gone to India after 19 people, including 10 Sikhs, were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Jalalabad in 2018, had got stuck there. “They could not even set up their businesses there,” he said, adding they are now neither Afghans nor Indian citizens.

Singh said, “We will prefer to go to Canada or the US if these countries extend help to Afghan Sikhs and Hindus. These two countries are already helping a lot of Afghan people who settled over there in the past."

On the current situation in Afghanistan, he said the Taliban have gained full control of Kabul. Sixty per cent of the market remained open on Tuesday, he said, adding he went to his shop for four hours and found the things “near normal”.

Singh said around 270 Sikhs and 50 Hindus are staying in a Kabul-based gurdwara 'Karte Parwar' which was visited by Taliban leaders.

They assured Afghan Sikhs and Hindus there of their safety and security and said they could go home without any fear, Singh said. Many Hindu and Sikh residents of Kabul have taken shelter in the gurdwara as they no longer feel safe in their homes, he said.