Sikh man killed in Kabul terror attack was shot multiple times; wife says would not have died this brutally had visas come earlier

New Delhi, June 20

My brother-in-law was taking a bath when he was fatally shot multiple times, said a kin of the Afghan Sikh man who is among the two persons killed in a terror attack on a gurdwara in Kabul.

Several blasts tore through Gurdwara Karte Parwan in Kabul’s Bagh-e Bala neighbourhood on Saturday while Afghan security personnel thwarted a bigger tragedy by stopping an explosive-laden vehicle from reaching the place of worship of the minority community.

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it “an act of support” for the Prophet.

In Delhi, family members of Sawinder Singh were mourning the loss of a loved one, as they struggled to put behind the horrid images of attack.

While Singh’s wife was inconsolable, her brother Pupender Singh, 36, shared the sequence of events he pieced together.

“My brother-in-law ran a shop and offered ‘sewa’ at the Gurdwara Karte Parwan, and also lived in a room on its premises. I got a call yesterday morning from my younger brother who lives in Kabul that the gurdwara had been attacked. He along with his friend was on his way to Jalalabad, when they told the taxi driver to take them back to Kabul,” he said.

Kabul-born Pupender said they were an Afghan Sikh family and Sawinder Singh and several other family members were all born and raised in Afghanistan only.

“When my brother reached to Kabul, by that time Taliban forces had already arrived and they were moving through the area. Multiple blasts had completed gutted the gurudwara. My brother then saw the body of our brother-in-law and called me to inform that ‘wo shaheed ho gaye hain’ (brother-in-law has been martyred),” Pupender Singh told PTI.

“We have the pictures and videos of his bullet-riddled body. There are bullet marks on his chest, at two places, and on a foot too. He was shot multiple times, and what information I have received from my brother in Kabul, he was shot dead while he was taking a bath in the bathroom. The door was found broken,” he said, with heaviness in his voice.

He’d not have died this brutally, had his visa come earlier: Wife

For Sawinder Singh, Kabul no longer felt home after the Taliban took over the Afghanistan capital last year. He ran a small ‘paan’ shop there, lived in a gurdwara, but always wanted to come to Delhi where his family lives.

He had applied for an e-visa. It was approved on Sunday. But the fear that gripped his wife for months had precipitated into reality a day before. The 60-something would never be home!

The Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISKP), an affiliate of the Islamic State militant group has said that one of its fighters “penetrated a temple for Hindu and Sikh polytheists” in Kabul, after killing the guard, and opened fire on the worshippers inside with his machine gun and hand grenades.

It was the latest targeted assault on a place of worship of the Sikh community in Afghanistan.

The three attackers were killed by the Taliban forces.

In 2018, a suicide bomber struck a gathering in the eastern city of Jalalabad, whilst another gurdwara was attacked in 2020.

“My ‘mama’ (maternal uncle) was killed in the 2018 attack,” recalled Pupender, who moved to India in 2010 and now lives in a refugee settlement in Janakpuri.

He said, the family wanted Sawinder Singh, who was aged about 60, to return to India, especially after the situation has become more difficult there since the Taliban took over in August 2021.

“Since, he didn’t have a visa, he couldn’t book his ticket. Indian officials and Taliban officials recently had held talks and, he was hoping that visas might be issued by the month end. But, the fate had something else in store,” Pupender Singh lamented.

“My brother-in-law did ‘sewa’ and was a very religious man. ‘Ab jo Wahe Guru ji ki marzi hai’ (Whatever the God wills). Everyone at home is drowned in grief,” he said.

Meanwhile, India has given e-visas to over 100 Sikhs and Hindus living in Afghanistan following the deadly terror attack on a gurudwara in Kabul, government sources said on Sunday.

The electronic visas have been given “on priority” to these people by the Ministry of Home Affairs, they said.

The terror attack on the gurdwara came days after the ISKP in a video message warned of an attack against Hindus to avenge the remarks against Prophet Mohammad by two former BJP functionaries.

In the past too, the ISKP had claimed responsibility for attacks on places of worship of Hindus, Sikhs and Shia Muslims in Afghanistan.