According to the Navhind Times it seems that many Sikhs from Afghanistan presently living in India, want to make their way back to Afghanistan through Pakistan, now that the country is stable enough for them to return to their businesses. What were up to 500,000 Sikhs doing in Afghanistan before the violence of the 90s and 9/11?
Afghan Sikhs and Hindus were predominant in Afghanistans unique money market working as commission money changers, while others had shops and trading establishments.
However, after the fall of Najibullah regime, the Sikhs and Hindus fell prey to bloody inter-Mujaheddin warfare.
For the past few years we have been trickling back and trying to reclaim our properties. We are facing lot of hardships, the Sikh leaders said.
The Indian government however is not receptive to the idea of the Sikhs traveling trough Pakistan.
The Indian government had imposed a ban on overland entry of Afghan Sikhs following warning from intelligence agencies that Pakistani agencies were trying to infiltrate Sikh extremists in the garb of Afghan Sikhs.
Restrictions had also been enforced as after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, Afghan security agencies had come across tell-tale evidence of some Sikh youths undergoing arms training in ISI-run camps near Kabul and in northern Afghanistan.
Assuming the article is refering to Al Qaeda’s terrorist training camps, that’s the first time I have heard that there were any significant number of Sikhs in those camps. In any case, it must be seen as a positive sign when people who fled a country start to return.
