(Juhi Aishwary, Journalist): The Government of India has pledged to protect Hindu and Sikh minorities in Afghanistan. The government said that in recent years there have been attacks on Hindu and Sikh minorities living in Afghanistan, steps will be taken to protect them. The government is committed to protecting those living there.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday that India has decided to facilitate the withdrawal of members of the Afghan Hindu and Sikh community facing security threats in Afghanistan. The statement on the rescue of an Afghan Sikh leader kidnapped in eastern Afghanistan last month did not provide much information.
An Indian official in Kabul said that the decision meant that there were around 600 Hindus and Sikhs living in Afghanistan, whereas they are a Muslim country. The government also said that those who return to India will get an opportunity to apply for long-term residency after their arrival in India.
During this time many people welcomed this emergency option, but it is also a dilemma, in fact, these Hindus and Sikhs living in Afghanistan also have the means of livelihood. They have shops and many families have been doing business there for generations. But these things will not be available to them when they come to India.
For such people, making a new beginning in India would mean living in poverty for a few years initially. While the industries are closed down due to coronavirus during this period, people do not have employment but are losing their jobs.
Hindus and Sikhs living in Afghanistan were attacked in March. 63-year-old Lala Sher Singh, who lives near a Sikh temple in Kabul, said that the community was so scared that he would never be attacked again. There is a possibility that the next attack should not be done by targeting those people in which the remaining people are also killed.
He said that I can be killed here due to the threats to Hindus and Sikhs, but in India, I will die from poverty. I have spent my entire life in Afghanistan. In this locality near the temple, if I stand in front of a shop and ask for two eggs and some bread, they will give me for free. But who will help me in India? There has been no official response from the Afghan government to India’s offer.
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