New Delhi: A group of thirty Afghan Sikhs including children will be returning to India on Wedensday from Afghanistan's Kabul, reported news agency ANI. The evacuation is being facilitated by Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) in coordination with Government of India and India World Forum as per the news agency. The evacuation comes a month after 21 Afghan Sikhs were brought back to the country from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan last month. A special commercial flight operated by Kam Air had brought back these distressed Afghan Shikhs to India.
Earlier, a special flight comprising 11 Afghan Sikhs had arrived from Kabul to New Delhi in the month of June which included Raqbir Singh who was injured in the Karte Parwan Gurdwara attack in Kabul on June 18, and the ashes of Sawinder Singh, killed in the attack.
Religious minorities in Afghanistan, including the Sikh community, have been targets of violence in the war-torn region. In October last year, 15 to 20 terrorists entered a Gurdwara in the Kart-e-Parwan District of Kabul and tied up the guards. In March 2020, a deadly attack took place at Sri Guru Har Rai Sahib Gurudwara in Kabul's Short Bazaar area claiming the lives of 27 Sikhs while several other were injured. Islamic State terrorists claimed responsibility for the attack.
Meanwhile, last week, the Taliban urged the minority communities, Hindus and Sikhs, to return back to Afghanistan claiming that the security situation in the country has been solved.
The assertion came after the Director General of the Office of the Minister of State of the Taliban, Dr Mullah Abdul Wasi met with a number of members of the Hindu and Sikh Council of Afghanistan on July 24th, tweeted the Office of Chief of Staff, Afghanistan.