On the eve of the holy month of Ramzan, shar­ing his grat­i­tude and em­pa­thy, ed­i­tor of The World Sikh News and hu­man rights ac­tivist Jag­mo­han Singh writes an Open Let­ter to Ab­dul Wahid -the son of Mahram Ali Shaghasi -the Mus­lim pro­tec­tor of the Gur­d­wara in Kabul, who was among the first to be killed on 25 March 2020. Cam­paign­ing for jus­tice for Afghan Sikhs, the writer wor­ries about the fam­ily of Mahram Ali Shaghasi -a true friend of the Sikhs who loved his pres­ence in the Kabul Gur­d­wara.  He pays hum­ble homage to Mahram Ali Shaghasi and re­it­er­ates that big­ots, tyrants and hate-mon­gers know no re­li­gion.

DEAR AB­DUL WAHID SHAGHASI: Aadab!  Four weeks ago, your de­vout Na­mazi fa­ther – Mahram Ali Shaghasi, died with the 25 Sikh men, women and a child, in the one-man gun at­tack by forces of di­vi­sion and hate, at Gur­d­wara Guru Har Rai in Kabul. I write this open let­ter to you to ac­knowl­edge that his death in the line of duty while pro­tect­ing the precincts of a re­li­gious place of wor­ship will be re­mem­bered by the Sikhs for all times to come.

When the his­tory of the at­tack on 25 March 2020 is recorded, a grate­ful Sikh com­mu­nity will record the sac­ri­fice of your fa­ther, who had a great bond­ing with the Afghan Sikh and Hindu com­mu­ni­ties.

I as­sure you that Sikh or­gan­i­sa­tions who are ded­i­cated to the pro­tec­tion and re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion of Afghan Sikhs take care of your fam­ily. Sikh hu­man­i­tar­ian bod­ies will reach out to of­fer re­spect, re­lief and re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion for your fam­ily to start life afresh.

His­tory is re­plete with the true-life sto­ries of Sikh-Mus­lim re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal affin­ity and grat­i­tude of Sikhs to­wards every ac­tion of Mus­lims and Mus­lim so­ci­ety stand­ing for truth and jus­tice.

As quoted by In­der­jeet Singh in his mon­u­men­tal book -Afghan Hin­dus and Sikhs -His­tory of 1000 years -the Sikh res­i­dents of Afghanistan re­call with awe and re­spect that in 1954 when the Nan­ga­har provin­cial gov­ern­ment wanted to mod­ernise the road around the Guru Nanak Dar­bar in Jalal­abad, the provin­cial au­thor­i­ties wanted to de­mol­ish the his­toric Gur­d­wara in Jalal­abad and give an al­ter­na­tive place in lieu thereof. The then King of Afghanistan -Em­peror Za­hir Shah re­spond­ing to the call of the Sikhs, is­sued a royal edict, over­turn­ing the provin­cial or­der.

The re­main­der of the Sikhs now in Kabul, Jalal­abad and Gazni, though wor­ried about their lives and his­tor­i­cal Gur­d­waras, still hope­fully be­lieve that if and when, each and every Sikh leaves the war-torn coun­try, their re­li­gious places of wor­ship will be safe and the coun­try would do all it takes to pro­tect them.

Al­though many are still in dis­re­pair, the large-heart­ed­ness of the Mus­lims in Pak­istan in keep­ing in­tact re­li­gious places and in many places even homes and hearths of Sikhs to this day, as be­ing dis­cov­ered on a daily ba­sis by Face­book ac­tivist, his­to­ri­og­ra­pher and friend of Sikhs -Shahid Shab­bir, is a trib­ute to the good­ness in hu­mankind demon­strated by the Mus­lims.

In equal mea­sure, Sikhs in East Pun­jab have pre­served masjids, mazhars and madras­sas. Sikh ac­tivists have un­equiv­o­cally stood rock-solid with Kash­miris and their cause.

Wahid, I truly say that when the pho­tos of Afghan Sikhs killed in the ghastly tragedy of March 2020, adorn the walls of the Sikh Na­tional Mu­seum in Am­rit­sar or any­where else in the world, I have no hes­i­ta­tion in say­ing that the photo of your fa­ther will also stand tall -frame to frame with the Sikhs.

When there was Ja­hangir, there was Mian Mir
When there was Au­rangzeb, there was Bud­dhu Shah Fakir

Sikh rev­o­lu­tion­ary poet Gajin­der Singh

Our True Em­peror -the First Mas­ter Guru Nanak laid the foun­da­tions of an in­clu­sive so­ci­ety, fo­cussed God-wards, with­out dis­crim­i­na­tion by hav­ing a Mus­lim sa­vant and bard Bhai Mar­dana as his life-long com­pan­ion.

My rev­o­lu­tion­ary poet friend Gajin­der Singh, has ap­pro­pri­ately re­minded the com­mu­nity in his unique style by telling us that,

When there was Ja­hangir, there was Mian Mir
When there was Au­rangzeb, there was Bud­dhu Shah Fakir

It is un­par­al­leled in the his­tory of world re­li­gions, that the foun­da­tion stone of its holi­est of holies is laid down by the leader-fol­lower of an­other faith. Sain Mian Mir laid the foun­da­tions of Dar­bar Sahib -also known as the Golden Tem­ple, at the be­hest of the Fifth Mas­ter Guru Ar­jan and added a unique chap­ter in the evolve­ment of Sikh his­tory.

Bud­dhu Shah Fakir and his sons died fight­ing for the Khalsa and we re­mem­ber them to this day.

Wahid, I truly say that when the pho­tos of Afghan Sikhs killed in the ghastly tragedy of March 2020, adorn the walls of the Sikh Na­tional Mu­seum in Am­rit­sar or any­where else in the world, I have no hes­i­ta­tion in say­ing that the photo of your fa­ther will also stand tall -frame to frame with the Sikhs.

Sher Mo­hammed Khan, -the Nawab of Malerkotla, in brute Wazir Khan’s open court at Sirhind, chal­lenged the in­hu­man or­der to brick alive the sons of Guru Gob­ind Singh -Baba Fateh Singh and Baba Zo­rawar Singh, who re­fused to re­lin­quish their faith and fol­low an­other. His­tory stands tes­ti­mony to the fact that when anger and angst took over the two com­mu­ni­ties in 1947, and men turned beasts in to­tal de­nial of hu­man­ity taught by their re­li­gions, even then Sikhs did not turn a bad eye for Malerkotla Mus­lim res­i­dents. To this day, in grat­i­tude, Malerkotla stands as an oa­sis of re­li­gious tol­er­ance and mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism in the Pun­jab.

I know that there are peo­ple in this world, in­clud­ing in my com­mu­nity, who are at­tempt­ing a short-sighted parochial ap­proach and try­ing to re­late things in a silly and awk­ward way.  You don’t have to worry. The col­lec­tive wis­dom of the Sikh com­mu­nity is that we are com­mit­ted to plu­ral­ism and hu­man­i­tar­i­an­ism.

It is com­fort­ing to note that the Afghan gov­ern­ment which has pro­vided ad­e­quate se­cu­rity in Kabul, Jalal­abad and Gazni.

Just a few months back, when a tiny mi­nus­cule mi­nor­ity of Sikh ac­tivists and farm­ers reached Jamia and Sha­heen Bagh, dur­ing the anti-CAA protests in Delhi, the Sikh spirit was rep­re­sented with full gusto, vigour, pain and em­pa­thy. Num­bers did­n’t mat­ter.

The words of a young stu­dent ac­tivist at Jamia Milia Uni­ver­sity protest in Delhi, still ring in my ears, “I do not know what my fa­ther and grand­fa­ther did or did not do dur­ing the No­vem­ber 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom in Delhi, but God for­bid, should Sikhs face any dif­fi­cult time again in fu­ture in this heart­less so­ci­ety of Delhi or any­where in In­dia, I and my other Mus­lim friends will be there shoul­der to shoul­der with the Sikhs.’

 To read this story in Pun­jabi, click here
ਸ਼ੁਕਰਗੁਜ਼ਾਰ ਸਿੱਖ ਕੌਮ ਕਾਬੁਲ ਦੇ ਮਰਹਮ ਅਲੀ ਸ਼ਗਾਸੀ ਨੂੰ ਕਦੇ ਨਹੀਂ ਭੁੱਲ ਸਕਦੀ

 To read this story in Urdu, click here
ایک مشکور سکھ قوم کبھی بھی کابل کے محرم علی شگسی کو نہیں بھولے گی

Many a Sikh in­tel­lec­tual, politi­cian and so­cial me­dia war­rior wanted to know whether any Mus­lim or Mus­lim or­gan­i­sa­tion have con­demned the Kabul tragedy. Ob­vi­ously, blinded by their own venom, they did not read what the Jamia Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion wrote, they could not hear the calls of con­dem­na­tion by Maul­vis in many cities, in­clud­ing in Pun­jab and they failed to no­tice the forth­right de­nun­ci­a­tion by the Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Is­lamic Coun­tries.

“I do not know what my fa­ther and grand­fa­ther did or did not do dur­ing the No­vem­ber 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom in Delhi, but God for­bid, should Sikhs face any dif­fi­cult time again in fu­ture in this heart­less so­ci­ety of Delhi or any­where in In­dia, I and my other Mus­lim friends will be there shoul­der to shoul­der with the Sikhs.’

The Sikhs in Kabul, liv­ing in dan­ger­ous ter­ri­tory and fac­ing life and death chal­lenges are nonethe­less grate­ful for the warmth and love show­ered by the Afghan gov­ern­men­tal of­fi­cials who promptly vis­ited the Gur­d­wara in Kabul soon af­ter the tragedy to pro­vide so­lace and suc­cour. It is com­fort­ing to note that the Afghan gov­ern­ment which has pro­vided ad­e­quate se­cu­rity in Kabul, Jalal­abad and Gazni.

Only those with an agenda in their hacked brains could have missed the days-on-end thou­sands of posts in Pashto by Afghans from all walks of life, con­demn­ing the killings with­out fear of reprisal and ex­press­ing love and af­fec­tion to­wards the Sikhs, their sim­plic­ity, hon­esty and hard­work­ing ethics.

The sketch of Jamia stu­dent of civil ser­vices, poet and ac­tivist Mu­nawwar Ma­jrooh etched soon af­ter the tragedy with the words, ‘Stand with Sikh broth­ers in this hour of dis­tress,” ap­plied balm on our wounds, re­it­er­ated sol­i­dar­ity which we cher­ish.

Even if any of the above had not hap­pened, the Sikh po­si­tion would have been the same. The Sikhs stand com­mit­ted to ex­press sol­i­dar­ity with the weak and op­pressed.  As taught by the Ninth Mas­ter Guru Tegh Ba­hadur, Sikhs are al­ways in readi­ness to lay down their lives for the equal­ity of rights, right to re­li­gion of one’s choice and hu­man rights for all.

 To read this story in Pun­jabi, click here
ਸ਼ੁਕਰਗੁਜ਼ਾਰ ਸਿੱਖ ਕੌਮ ਕਾਬੁਲ ਦੇ ਮਰਹਮ ਅਲੀ ਸ਼ਗਾਸੀ ਨੂੰ ਕਦੇ ਨਹੀਂ ਭੁੱਲ ਸਕਦੀ

 To read this story in Urdu, click here
ایک مشکور سکھ قوم کبھی بھی کابل کے محرم علی شگسی کو نہیں بھولے گی

I will be fail­ing in my grat­i­tude if I do not thank Afghani Sikh Man­pal Singh -the for­mer em­ployer of your fa­ther who whilst leav­ing Kabul a few years ago, ho­n­our­ing the hon­esty and dili­gence of your fa­ther, en­sured that your fa­ther got a job and stay at the Gur­d­wara in Kabul. Then, he did not en­vis­age that those op­posed to hu­man­ity would even at­tack the sa­cred place of God.

The Sikh na­tion will go be­yond the call of duty like your fa­ther Mahram Ali Shaghasi in ap­ply­ing marham-suc­cour and piety to you and all your fam­ily mem­bers. Mahram Ali Shaghasi’s life will be an­other sym­bol of Sikh-Mus­lim affin­ity and broth­er­hood.

Please con­vey my Aadab to your 75-year-old grand­fa­ther Qur­ban Ali, your mother Fariba Gul Rok and your sib­lings Par­wez, Mur­warid and Geeta that the Sikhs re­mem­ber you all. Tell them, Sikhs love and re­spect you for the deeds of your fa­ther and that you all will stay in our mem­o­ries for all times to come.

Sin­cerely

Jag­mo­han Singh
Ed­i­tor, The World Sikh News