People from the Sikh minority in Afghanistan who are escaping the Taliban’s control landed in India on a flight of evacuation on Sunday. One of them was happy to have escaped the crisis-ridden nation that had been overthrown by the Taliban last year after they had retaken control.
Speaking to the news organisation ANI, Baljeet Singh discussed the situation in the nation and said that the Taliban had held him captive for four months. The situation is not very good in Afghanistan. I was imprisoned for four months. The Taliban have tricked us, they chopped our hair in prison. I am pleased and delighted to return to India,’ he stated.
In a special flight that landed at Delhi Airport on Sunday, fifty-five Afghan Sikhs came as part of the government’s attempts to evacuate the persecuted minority in the Taliban-led country. According to ANI, the flight was organised to evacuate these Afghan minority by the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandak Committee, Amritsar, in collaboration with the Indian World Forum and the Center.
Another refugee expressed gratitude to the government for securing them urgent e-visas and transporting them securely. ‘We appreciate the Indian authorities helping us get urgent visas and assisting us in getting to India. Around 30-35 individuals are still missing in Afghanistan, and many of us still have family there ‘,explained Sukhbeer Singh Khalsa.
The largest private Afghan airline, Kam Air, evacuated 21 Afghan Sikhs, including a baby, from Kabul to New Delhi on July 14. In 2020, there were reportedly 700 Hindus and Sikhs living in Afghanistan, but after the Taliban seized power on August 15, 2021, many of them emigrated.
Since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, there have reportedly been more attacks against Sikhs. About 50 people were killed in an attack on the Karte Parwan Gurdwara by the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) on June 18 in Kabul. 15 to 20 militants broke into a Gurdwara in Kabul’s Kart-e-Parwan District in October of last year and bound the guards.
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