SGPC condemns terror attack on gurdwara in Afghanistan's Kabul

GS Paul

Amritsar, June 18

The SGPC has strongly condemned the multiple blasts reported in the premises of Gurdwara Dashmesh Pita Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji Sabha at Karta-e-Parwan in Afghanistan’s Kabul early on Saturday morning.

Terming it a cowardly repeated terror act on the places of worship of minorities, SGPC president Harjinder Singh Dhami said that it has clearly reflected the fiendish mindset of the culprits and the agencies which backed them up.

He said that the minorities, especially the Sikhs, have been suffering widespread discrimination and are terrorised in the Muslim-dominated soil, yet all pleas of the Sikh body with the Union Ministry for their safe evacuation by providing them e-visa and rehabilitate them here, fell on deaf ears.

“We have repeatedly taken up the matter of safety of the Afghanistan based Sikhs with the Union ministry urging to frame up a policy to rehabilitate them, but in vain,” he said.

SGPC deputy secretary (media) Kulwinder Singh Ramdas said that he was in constant touch with Gurnam Singh, president of the shrine.

“He told me that besides the blasts the sound of gunshots could be heard from one corner of the premises where some of them have been assembled. With no knowledge of the number of attackers so far, he said that the attackers were inside the gurdwara when 10-12 Sikhs sangat was already present then. He was clueless about the casualties or any damage caused so far as they were unable to enter the gurdwara,” he said.

This is the third such incident in the past eight months when the same Sikh shrine was attacked and vandalised in Kabul.

On October 15, 2021, heavily armed persons who claimed to be from the ‘special unit’ of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan barged into the gurdwara, manhandled with the Sikh and Hindu community members present then.

On October 5, 2021, the armed persons forcibly entered the gurdwara, handcuffed the private security persons, detained the local Sikh sangat present in the gurdwara then and damaged gurdwara property, including CCTV cameras.

A 30-second video clip too had surfaced on social media then, in which the armed persons with covered faces were frisking the drawers of an almirah, displacing the furniture.