There have always been religious minorities living beside the Muslim majority in Afghanistan. Hindus and Sikhs formed the most prominent religious minorities living in Afghanistan’s towns and cities until recent decades.
The rise to social and political prominence of religious fundamentalism has increased intolerance and discrimination towards non-Muslim minorities in country. In recent decades, the Hindu and Sikh minorities have suffered both discrimination as well as blatant attacks by terrorist groups.
After the Taliban returned to power and IS-K increased its activities in the country, the Sikh community is facing increased systemic violence. Many Sikhs have been forced to flee their homeland. Zan Times interviewed Chern Singh Khalsa, a member of the Sikh community. In late 2019, he and his family left Afghanistan after the Sikh community as well as other religious minorities were systematically targeted with violence.
Zan Times: When and how did you leave Afghanistan?
Charan Singh Khalsa: I left Afghanistan in late 2019 after my 22-year-old brother, Arjith Singh, was kidnapped and murdered. My brother was kidnapped from his shop and after two months and 15 tough days, we found his dead body in a graveyard. We survived four decades of the war and conflict and stayed in Afghanistan despite all the problems, but my brother’s murder and the trauma that our family went through as a result forced us to leave Afghanistan. Although after the Taliban regime fell in 2001 we hoped that the Sikh community would live in peace, the situation gradually deteriorated and the attacks on our community increased after 2014. Our community was cold-bloodedly targeted by several suicide attacks in different cities including Kabul, Jalal Abad, and Ghazni. Afghanistan became unsafe for the Sikh community. I lost many relatives and friends in suicide attacks on the Sikh community.
The Sikh community has gone through many problems: our houses were robbed and properties taken, but, for my family, my brother’s kidnapping and his brutal murder was too much to bear and we were forced to leave everything behind and became refugees.
ZT: Tell us more about the time you left Afghanistan?
Khalsa: After the murder of my brother, I sold all my belongings including my house and auctioned my three shops for dirt cheap. We got rid of everything and just wanted to get out of the country and we did not have a clear destination. It was like a desperate attempt of leaving behind everything, memories, friends, job, business, to save my life and take my family into a safe place.
ZT: Where are you now and what do you do?
Khalsa: I and my family are in an Asian country now. I do not want to say exactly which country I am in. We have many problems; we live under extreme poverty, uncertainty, and hopelessness. We have to live in other people’s homeland, just to ensure our physical safety. We are not sure what the future holds for us, but we hope that international organizations will consider our hard situation and relocate us to a better country where my children could have access to education.
ZT: How do you see the future?
Khalsa: The one who does not have a homeland is like someone who does not have a mother, and the life of an orphan is always uncertain and gloomy. I do not have any thought on what will happen to me or to my children. Not only me, but all the Afghan Sikhs are in the same situation, we are left alone and helpless.
ZT: How is the situation with your friends who are left in Afghanistan?
Khalsa: There are around 10 families left inside Afghanistan who live in a very hard situation. Only few days ago, a bomb exploded in the shop of a Sikh in Kabul. Fortunately, they were not in the shop and no one was harmed but the shop was completely destroyed.
Most Afghan Sikhs have already left Afghanistan and only around 60 people might still be in Afghanistan. I wish they can all get out of the country safely. We cannot continue living in Afghanistan as we are indiscriminately targeted by terrorist groups. Afghanistan is no longer a safe place for us.
My wish is that the governments and people of Afghanistan can protect our communities’ historical and religious monuments, such as gurdwaras, dharamsala, and temples, so that the history and future generations remember that there was a large and dynamic Sikh community in Afghanistan.
