Afghan Sikhs targeted over Prophet slur
GURDWARA BOMBED AFTER ISLAMOPHOBIC REMARKS BY MODI PARTY SPOKESWOMAN
DAESH (Islamic State) claimed responsibility for an attack on a Sikh temple in Afghanistan that killed one community member and a Taliban fighter, saying it was retaliation for insults against the Prophet Mohammed.
Protests in several Muslim countries were sparked by comments from a spokeswoman for Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) earlier this month about the relationship between the Prophet and his youngest wife.
In a message posted on its Amaq propaganda site, Daesh said last Saturday’s (18) attack targeted Hindus and Sikhs and the “apostates” who protected them in “an act of support for the Messenger of Allah”.
Daesh said one of its fighters “penetrated a temple for Hindu and Sikh polytheists in Kabul, after killing its guard, and opened fire on the pagans inside with his machine gun and hand grenades”. Two were killed and at least seven others wounded in the raid.
The interior ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said the attackers lobbed at least one grenade when they entered the temple, setting off a blaze.
Gunmen first fired at the main gate of the complex, killing a guard, before storming inside, shooting, and throwing grenades, survivors said.
Minutes later a car bomb exploded outside the complex, shattering walls and windows of nearby buildings.
When the raid began, some escaped through a back door and took refuge in nearby buildings.
The attack follows a visit by an Indian delegation to the capital Kabul to discuss the distribution of humanitarian aid from Delhi to Afghanistan.
Afghan and Indian media reports said the delegation discussed with Taliban officials the possibility of reopening the Indian embassy, which was shut after the Islamists seized power in August last year.
The number of bombings across Afghanistan has dropped since the Taliban returned to power, but several attacks – many targeting minority communities – have rocked the country in recent months, including several claimed by Daesh.
The number of Sikhs living in Afghanistan has dwindled to around 200, compared to about half a million in the 1970s.
Most of those who remain are traders involved in selling herbal medicines and electronic goods brought from India.
Indian government sources told reporters in Delhi that emergency visas had been given to around 100 Afghan Hindus and Sikhs but Manmohan Singh Sethi, who is in his 70s and was born in Afghanistan, said none in the frightened community were aware of the offer.
He said the community was now unsure where even to pray for their future.
“If we all gather to perform rituals at a specific place we might face another such incident,” he said.
“We have been attacked thrice already... We can’t be careless.”
“The latest incident has impacted us in a big way,” said Sethi.
“Afghanistan is my homeland and I never wanted to leave... but now I am leaving.”
In recent months, many impoverished Sikhs, including women and children, have taken refuge in the complex that was attacked last Saturday.
The community has faced repeated attacks over the years. At least 25 people were killed in March 2020 when gunmen stormed another Sikh temple in Kabul in an attack that was also claimed by Daesh.