Editorial IN Afghanistan Times: Extremely Heartbreaking

The existence of several ethnics, religions and languages in a society indicate the unity and love among the citizens with painting a great image of beauty of a unified nation. Afghanistan is one of those rare countries in the region that has several religions, ethnics and languages. Besides the Pashtons, Tajikis, Hazaras, Uzbek and etc…there is some other minorities also living in the country.

Two of these rare beauties in Afghanistan are the Hindus and Sikhs who have been living since ages in the country. But unfortunately throughout the history, they have been oppressed and treated cruelly during the longest conflicts in Afghanistan.

Recently an attack conducted by the Islamic State (IS) also known as Daesh on the Sikhs’ temple in downtown Kabul, killed at least 25 Sikhs including women and children and wounded eight others. The attack faced widespread condemnation by the Afghan and foreign officials, but such acts would not cure their pain after they lost a member of their family. The consecutive deadly attacks and threats forced these minorities to consider leaving Afghanistan – a country they have called home for centuries.

As expected Delhi become the first country to officially announce the endorsement of visa and permanent asylum for the Afghan Sikhs and Hindus in India. On Sunday 26th July, the first batch of 11 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus left Kabul for Delhi to seek a permanent asylum there. However most of those Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, who left Afghanistan, promised to returned back home if the security become tighten that their lives would be no longer at risk. They have been having a very sound and peaceful relations with every other tribe in the country.

The Afghan Sikhs and Hindus mainly worked in the educational centers and some of them were engaged into personal business in the past. But recently, they have been faded in Afghanistan. Losing such peaceful minorities is a great lost for Afghanistan. It is so disappointed that we could not support them or embrace such a minor ethnic, which was considered as a main beauty of national unity in our country.

The Afghan government failed to protect them. For the ordinary Afghans, it is really painful to see this happening. Extremely heartbreaking, hope a day will come that all Afghans irrespective of their religious, ethnic, political and linguistic affiliations will be able to live peacefully in Afghanistan without the fear of discrimination and intimidation. It’s of great concern that billions of dollars expended on Afghan democracy and the result is that…

http://www.afghanistantimes.af/editorial-extremely-heartbreaking/

Dr.Gurdeep Kaur

Associate Professor

Sri Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa Collge

University of Delhi