Taliban imposes sanctions on Afghanistan’s Sikh, Hindu minorities

New Delhi : When Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021, there were concerns that some of Afghanistan’s small non-Muslim minority might disappear. A media report states that after two years, these apprehensions are proving to be true. As RFE/RL reports, Afghanistan’s last Jew fled the country soon after the Taliban took over, leaving the Sikh and Hindu communities believed to be reduced to only a handful of families.

Sikhs and Hindus face severe restrictions under Taliban rule, RFE/RL reports. There is a ban on celebrating their religious events in public, leaving many with no option but to flee.

One of the last Sikhs left in the capital, Kabul, said, “I can’t go anywhere freely.” “When I go out, I am forced to dress like a Muslim so that I cannot be recognized as a Sikh,” she said in reference to the Taliban order. Kaur’s father was killed in 2018 in a suicide attack targeting Sikhs and Hindus in the eastern city of Jalalabad. The attack reportedly caused 1,500 Sikhs to leave the country, including Kaur’s mother and sisters. But Kaur refused to leave and stayed in Kabul, the RFE/RL report said. In March 2020, 25 people died when Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) terrorists attacked a Sikh temple in Kabul. After the attack, most of the remaining members of the minority community left Afghanistan.