Kabul, Sep 2,2021: The Taliban have assured Afghan Sikhs that they will be provided a safe passage to come to India, following the meeting between India’s Ambassador in Qatar, Deepak Mittal, and the head of Taliban’s Political Office in Doha, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday.
This was revealed in a statement by Vikramjit S Sahney, president World Punjabi Organisation, on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Indian Ambassador to Qatar held a meeting with the senior Taliban representative at the Indian embassy in Doha, on the request of the Taliban side.
The discussions focused on the safety, security and early return of Indian nationals stranded in Afghanistan. The travel of Afghan nationals, especially minorities, who wish to visit India also came up in the talks, a statement said on Tuesday.
Sahney, in a press statement on Wednesday, said that 180 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus who were taking shelter in the Kate Parwan Gurdwara in Kabul have returned to their homes in Jalalabad, Ghazni and Kabul and very few of them remain in the gurdwara.
He said that these Afghan Sikhs and Hindus had a narrow escape from the suicide bombing outside Kabul airport on August 26 that killed at least 200 people, including 13 US troopers.
“It is to be stated that these Afghan Sikhs had a narrow escape from the bomb blast that happened last week at Kabul airport, that upon starting of firing we had advised them to return to the Gurdwara at about 2 a.m.,” Sahney said.
He said that his organisation is in touch with the India’s Ministry of External Affairs over the remaining Afghan Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan and an evacuation plan is being chalked out “in the next 10 days or so” to enable these Sikhs to visit India on pilgrimage on the occasion of the 400th birth anniversary of Shri Guru Teg Bahadur.
He said that this has been conveyed to the Taliban representatives who have accepted it “in principle” and “have assured that they will provide full security for these Afghan Sikhs to travel to Kabul airport and then to India”.
Separately, Sahney said that a meeting has been convened on Friday in New Delhi with various Afghan representatives in India to chalk out a programme for rehabilitation of 250 Afghan Sikh and Hindu refugees under the programme ‘My Family My Responsibility’. Besides, the rehabilitation programme of 520 Afghan Sikh and Hindu families in the capital will also be reviewed, he added.
Sahney announced that free skilling at the world class Skill Centre in Hari Nagar, Delhi, will be extended to all Afghan Muslim refugees too in addition to the Afghan Sikhs and Hindus, in view of the protest by Afghan refugees that they don’t have jobs and the means to earn their livelihood.
Sahney added that the World Punjabi Organisation and the Sun Foundation are committed to save lives and livelihoods of all Afghan refugees irrespective of caste, creed or religion.
