India should reach out to the Hindus and Sikhs of Afghanistan
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has done much for the Afghan Hindu and Sikh community but they are terrified and many wish to leave Afghanistan
By Aditi Bhaduri
A recent report by Radio Free Afghanistan quoted members of the tiny Hindu and Sikh minority community in Afghanistan as saying they wanted to leave Afghanistan and were living in great fear there.
Indeed the year has been horrifying for the community, still trying to come to terms with the grisly tragedy that befell them on March 25th, when, Kabul once again witnessed a terror attack. Two insurgents stormed the historic 400 years old gurdwara Har Rai Sahib in Kabul where people had gathered for prayers, detonated bombs, and opened fire on the worshippers and residents. About forty families lived on the compound of the gurdwara. The attack had targeted the vulnerable Sikh minority community in Kabul, killing twenty seven people, including a child and three women.
Banned terror group Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), had claimed responsibility for the attack. One of the attackers was Muhammad Muhsin, an Indian and an IS recruit from the state of Kerala.
The National Investigative Agency has filed an FIR to probe the terror attack. This was the first case of its kind which the agency registered after the recent amendment in the NIA act, which empowers it to investigate terror cases outside India against Indian citizens or interests. Three Indian workers were also killed in the attacks.
The Sikhs in Afghanistan number around only 700 people. Why were they chosen? What threat do they constitute in the country? Security officials in both Afghanistan and India believe that the attack was the handiwork of the Haqqani-LeT network, supported by Pakistan. A video released by the ISKP linked the attacks as revenge for Indias treatment of Muslims in Kashmir.
This attack is one of the tragic saga that has been unfolding since the Soviets left Afghanistan and the Mujaheed took over. Civil war and chaos have marked the country since. In 1992 most of the 300.000 strong Afghan Sikh community and almost all Hindus had left Afghanistan.
Attacks have been launched periodically on these minority groups. This is particularly sad given the rich history of the Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan. The Hindu presence in Afghanistan is well documented, at least since the rule of the Hindu Shahi kings till the dynasty was dethroned by the Turkic ruler Sabuktigin; the Sikh presence dates back to the time of Guru Nanak. A recent and engaging book Afghan Hindus and Sikhs: History of a Thousand Years by Inderjeet Singh documents how the community has made its mark on Afghan society. Engaged mostly in banking, money lending, and business, the communities had built up trust and confidence with other Afghans and enriched their country in various ways. For instance, Diwan Niranjan Das, an Afghan Hindu, had helped negotiate the independence of Afghanistan with the British. He became the Afghan Minister for Finance and Commerce.
Since the end of the Soviet occupation, however, things changed dramatically for the community. Attack after attack has forced majority of them to leave and seek asylum in India and elsewhere. Even after the rule of the Taliban was ended, their harassment and travails continued. The last attack, before the one on the Kabul gurudwara in March this year took place, was only a year and a half ago. In 2018 a suicide bomber had attacked a convoy of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus on its way to meet President Ashraf Ghani, At least 19 people were killed in the attack, including prominent community members, and 20 others were wounded.
The attacks in March this year have ramifications at a number of levels. The first is within Afghanistan. Targeting the vulnerable community seeks to sow the seeds of discord within Afghan society, cause panic amongst the community, and send out a message to other minority communities like the Shias, the Hazaras, who have been at the receiving end of radical terror groups. The second would be to sow distrust between the Sikh community and the ruling dispensation. The third is to provoke differences and irritants between the governments in Delhi and Kabul who enjoy excellent relations. Finally, the attacks may also seek totsow discord between the Sikh community and the Indian state.
So what should be done? What in particular can and should India do?
There had been spontaneous emotional responses to the tragedy. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Union Minister Har Simrat Kaur Badal had called for India to evacuate the Sikhs. Other equally knowledgeable and informed voices said that doing so may damage the good relations that Afghanistan and India enjoy. Evacuation of Sikhs by India may signal a loss of confidence in the governance of President Ashraf Ghani and roil his administration.
It is true that the Ghani government has done much to improve the lot of the Afghan Sikhs and Hindus. There is a Sikh representation in the Afghan parliament, a representative Sandip Singh Khalsa is an advisor to the President on community affairs, the Afghan government has issued national identity cards (tazqira) to Afghan Hindus and Sikhs who have sought refuge in India, based on which they can apply for passports: it has issued interim travel permits to Afghan Hindus and Sikhs who now hold Indian passports so that they can travel easily to Afghanistan, it has earmarked funds for renovation and restoration of places of worship of the community and so on.
No one can fault the Afghan government regarding the status or security of the Sikhs there. But it is equally true that Afghanistan is an extremely fragile state; the government is fractious, a recent UN report notes that the Taliban continues to maintain ties with the Al Qaeda. Attacks and violence continues, with increasing brutality, not just against the Sikhs but against other minorities too, as also against the most vulnerable like women and even newborns, as the attacks more recently on a maternity hospital in Kabul show. In fact, in the last couple of years more Hazaras have been targeted than Sikhs. But Hazaras are numerically superior and therefore more resilient; it would take a couple more attacks to entirely wipe out the Sikh and Hindu community.
Surely, Afghan’ Hindu and Sikh community cannot be sacrificed at the altar of real politik. And surely a friendly government like the Ghani government is not expected to take umbrage if India is to evacuate those Sikhs who wish to leave Afghanistan. Those who would like to remain will do so. There have been credible reports that a number of Afghan Sikhs have written to the Indian Embassy in Kabul and Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking evacuation for Sikh families for refuge in India. When there are such pleas from amongst the community itself India cannot be charged with facilitating a pull factor.
Almost ninety per cent of Afghan Sikhs and almost all Hindus had left Afghanistan in 1992, just before Kabul fell to the Mujahideen. Dr. Najibuallah, whose government had been friendly to India, had informed the Indian government that his government was no longer able to protect Hindus and Sikhs. The Indian embassy issued speedy visas. Because of the urgency, sometimes visas for 2 or 3 persons were issued on a single passport. Both governments worked in tandem.
Soon after the March attacks the Ministry of External Affairs had said that India stands ready to extend all possible assistance to the affected families of the Hindu and Sikh communities of Afghanistan. With intelligence and security agencies assessing that, with the US peace deal with the Taliban, attacks on Indian interests are likely to increase in the near future India should not abandon the Sikhs and Hindus of Afghanistan.
