India Issues Emergency Visas To 111 Afghan Hindus And Sikhs

Following Saturday’s intentional attack on the Sikhs and Hindus communities in Kabul. The Indian government gave e-visas to almost 100 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus upon urgency after the Kabul gurdwara attack.

The e-visas will make it easier to evacuate Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan, where they are in great danger due to terrorist attacks.
On Saturday, an Islamic State-claimed attack on a Sikh temple in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul killed an estimated two people and wounded seven more.

The Home Ministry (MHA) awarded emergency visas to 111 Afghan Hindus and Sikhs just moments after a terrorist attack on a gurdwara in Kabul on Saturday. Everyone had filed for the visa in September 2021. But they were only approved after the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP). A terrorist group, stormed the gurdwara on Saturday, eventually killing two individuals, including a Sikh granthi. According to a community member.

The nearest branch of the Islamic State announced on a linked Platform that the attack was in reaction to insults directed at the Prophet Mohammed and apparently referring to statements made by the government of India’s spokesperson that numerous Muslim-majority nations have criticized.

According to Gorman Singh, a temple administrator, there were about 30 individuals inside the structure at the time.

One Sikh worshipper was killed in the attack, according to a spokesman for Kabul’s commander, while one Taliban fighter was killed when his troops gained control of the area.

The Saturday bomb was heavily criticized as one of the numbers of assaults attacking minorities, with the administration of neighbouring Pakistan expressing “deep concern” over the “latest wave of terrorist attacks on religious buildings in Afghanistan.”

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said in a statement that minorities in the nation deserved to be safeguarded, while India’s President Narendra Modi remarked on Twitter that the incident had left him “shocked.”

Sikhs were a small religious minority in mainly Muslim Afghanistan, numbering just approximately 300 households when the Taliban took over. According to community members and the media, many have now fled.

Sikhs, more like other religious minorities, have been repeatedly targeted by terrorism in Afghanistan. The Islamic State also claimed responsibility for a 2020 massacre on another Kabul shrine that managed to kill 25 people.

The bombing on Saturday came after an earlier day’s bombing at a mosque in the northern city of Kunduz, which led to the death of one person and injured two, as per police.

Following the incident, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a statement saying it is “deeply worried.”

“We are gravely worried by reports from Kabul of an attack on a hallowed Gurudwara in that city,” said MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.

Likewise, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann denounced the incident. He has requested that the Ministry of External Affairs and Prime Minister Narendra Modi summon the Afghan ambassador.

“Extremely condemnable!” This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Every three to four months, minorities are attacked. “I urge the MEA and the PM to call the Afghan Ambassador and send a strong message that the Government of India is committed to the protection of minorities,” he added. There are instances, drugstore-onlinecatalog.com however, where a doctor or pharmacist visits the customer’s home before he or she requests a prescription on the website.

“Everyone should strongly condemn the dastardly attack on Gurudwara Karte Parwan.” We have been keeping a careful eye on developments since learning of the incident. “Our primary concern is the well-being of the community,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted.

Although there were approximately 700 Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan in the year 2020, a substantial proportion of households fled the nation last year as a result of instability and the Taliban’s control of the nation after US soldiers withdrew on August 15.

According to Indian authorities, around 150 Hindus and Sikhs are now residing in Afghanistan. “However, this tiny minority is currently under tremendous threat,” an official added.

In accordance with the revision of rule in Kabul last year, the Indian government aided Afghan people seeking to evacuate the country and seek asylum in other countries, notably India, by establishing a new visa category – “e-Emergency X-Misc.”

The event on Saturday was the latest deliberate attack on a minority group’s religious building in Afghanistan.

Around the early march of 2020, a highly armed suicide bomber assaulted Har Rai Sahib, a renowned gurdwara, in the middle of Kabul, killing at least 25 worshipers and injuring eight more in one of the country’s bloodiest assaults against the minority Sikh population.