Islam being imposed on Hindus & Sikhs staying in Afghanistan [ Kabul, Afghanistan ]

[ Reported as seen ]

The life of the Hindus and Sikhs staying in Afghanistan has taken a horrifying turn. They are forced to look, dress, behave and talk like Muslims even though they practice a different faith. The Sikh and Hindu communities, meanwhile, are estimated to consist of no more than a few families now. Many of them were forced to flee Afghanistan because of the Taliban’s strict restrictions which include their appearance and the prohibition on celebrating their religious holidays in public.

Fari Kaur, one of the last remaining Sikhs in the capital, Kabul stated, “I cannot go anywhere freely.” She made reference to the Taliban’s directive that all women must wear the all-encompassing burqa or niqab when they are outside. “I’m obliged to appear like a Muslim so that I can’t be recognized as a Sikh”, she said.

A suicide attack in the eastern city of Jalalabad in 2018 that targeted Sikhs and Hindus resulted in the demise of her father.

As per accounts, around 1,500 Sikhs, including Kaur’s mother and sisters left Afghanistan as a result of the incident. However, she was unwilling to leave and remained in Kabul to complete her education which was her father’s dream.

in March 2020, when the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) terrorists struck a Sikh temple in Kabul 25 worshippers were massacred. Fari Kaur continued to stay there, but now, more than two years after the Taliban seized power, she noted that the lack of religious freedom imposed by the extremists forced her to look for asylum abroad.

Kaur also said, “We have not celebrated our key festivals since the Taliban returned to power. We have very few community members left behind in Afghanistan. We cannot even look after our temples.”

When the Taliban initially came to power between 1996 to 2001, they proclaimed that all Sikhs and Hindus in the nation would have to wear yellow badges which sparked outrage around the world. They were forbidden from constructing new temples and were also required to pay a specific tax known as jaziya which was historically levied on non-Muslim subjects by Muslim monarchs.

Chabul Singh, a 57-year-old Sikh man who left his homeland with his wife and two sons some years ago said, “We abandoned our country out of extreme desperation.” The family currently resides outside of New Delhi, where he and his kids work odd jobs to make ends meet. Singh said, “In Afghanistan, our distinctive turbans gave us away, and we were killed both by the Taliban and Daesh (Arabic moniker of IS-K).”