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Hindus, Sikhs in Afghanistan can practice their faith

Declaring that the days of the Taleban's religious intolerance were over, the Northern Alliance had assured the Hindu and Sikh communities in Afghanistan that they were free to practice their faith without fear.

This was stated by acting Minister for Religious Affairs Ata-ur-Rahman while addressing a function to mark Guru Nanak's birth anniversary celebrations in Kabul.

The Taleban regime had imposed a number of restrictions on the minorities and went to the extent of asking them to attire in a manner, which would make it easy to identify them.

The chief liaison officer, Gautam Mukhopadhyay, who was overseeing, among other things, the repair and restoration work at the Indian chancery and the ambassador's residence in Kabul, attended the weekly function at the local Hindu temple and the Gurudwara on Friday, an external affairs ministry spokesperson said.

He was accompanied by other liaison office staff and the medical team, which accompanied India's special envoy on Afghanistan S K Lambah to Afghanistan.

The medical team had stayed back and started functioning at the Indira Gandhi Hospital.

Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan attended temple and gurudwara functions as one single community. The Indian community had shrunk from over 50,000 in the 70s and the 80s to, according to estimates, some 500 families now. A large number of such families had come to India

PTI

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