Vet­eran Afghan Sikh leader Kha­jin­der Singh passes away in Delhi

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For the last thirty years, Kha­jin­der Singh had made his vo­ca­tion to sup­port the Afghan Sikh repa­tri­ates com­ing from Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan flee­ing the per­ilous sit­u­a­tion in the war-torn coun­try.  He passed away last evening fol­low­ing a mas­sive heart at­tack. He came to Delhi in 1990 it­self when the trou­bles started in Afghanistan and has since then has been the ‘Man Fri­day’ to many an Afghan Sikh in­di­vid­ual and fam­ily. He not only pro­vided sup­port in In­dia but en­abled not hun­dreds but thou­sands to go to the West, de­spite all odds. It is a trib­ute to his hard work that all Afghan Sikhs who are now vis­i­ble in the UK, USA, Eu­rope, Canada and other parts of the world, have had some as­so­ci­a­tion with him and his Afghan Sikh and Hindu Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion through which he main­tained live links with the In­dian gov­ern­ment and the UN­HCR of­fices in Delhi.

WHEN I SPOKE TO HIM JUST A FEW DAYS BACK, PRIOR TO THE AR­RIVAL OF THE SEC­OND BATCH OF AFGHAN SIKHS TO NEW DELHI,  KHA­JIN­DER SINGH KHU­RANA told me that in view of the stren­u­ous cir­cum­stances in which the Sikhs are com­ing from Afghanistan, he had post­poned his trip to Lon­don to meet his fam­ily there.  He spoke to me for more than an hour and spelt out all the minute de­tails of the arrange­ments that he and his team were mak­ing for the ar­rival of the Kabul San­gat.

He was wor­ried about the fact that Sikh or­gan­i­sa­tions en­gaged in the wel­fare of the Afghan Sikhs should not work at log­ger­heads with each other and to that end, he was re­cep­tive to sug­ges­tions. He had drafted an open let­ter for Sikh or­gan­i­sa­tions call­ing a spade a spade and was nice enough to dis­close the con­tents of the same, even though it was my sec­ond tele­phonic in­ter­ac­tion with me.

In view of the volatile sit­u­a­tion and with the last hun­dreds of Afghan Sikhs wait­ing in the wings for de­par­ture to In­dia, I re­quested him to ei­ther re­word the let­ter or drop it al­to­gether. He agreed and as much as I know he did not make an is­sue of any­thing.

Work­ing for three decades with peo­ple who have un­der­gone a trauma of one kind or an­other can be a trau­matic ex­pe­ri­ence it­self.  It is not pos­si­ble to ap­pease every­one, yet Kha­jin­der Singh took every­thing in his stride.

Khajinder Singh presenting History of Afghan Sikhs book to Afghan King Zakir Shah
Khajinder Singh presenting his Punjabi book on History of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus to Afghan King Zakir Shah

Last year in De­cem­ber 2019, he presided over a meet­ing of well-wish­ers of Afghan Sikhs in Delhi, where there were in­vi­tees from Afghanistan, the USA and many from In­dia and Delhi. Harsaran Singh of the Global Sikh Coun­cil, who at­tended the meet told WSN on the phone about his fond mem­o­ries of Kha­jin­der Singh’s per­son­al­ity. He said, “He was a very gen­tle and sober-minded per­son, full of hu­mil­ity. Ris­ing from a hum­ble back­ground he be­came a well-known busi­ness per­son in the Delhi Sikh com­mu­nity.”

“While he is mostly known for his con­cern about the well-be­ing and safety of Sikhs left be­hind in his home­land Afghanistan, few peo­ple know that he was also con­cerned about fu­ture of Sikhs in other con­flict zones like Kash­mir and the fu­ture of Sikh youth there, which he dis­cussed dur­ing the meet­ing.”

“He was a very gen­tle and sober-minded per­son, full of hu­mil­ity. Ris­ing from a hum­ble back­ground he be­came a well-known busi­ness per­son in the Delhi Sikh com­mu­nity.”

Kabul di Sangat ate Afghanistan da Sankhep Itihas by Khajinder SinghThe Bhai Ghanaiya Seva Dal from Kash­mir has ex­pressed deep con­do­lences at the demise of Kha­jin­der Singh.

Doc­u­men­tary Film­maker Afghan Sikh, now in the UK -Prit­pal Singh in a Face­book post has shared the pic­ture of Kha­jin­der Singh pre­sent­ing his book on the Afghan Sikhs and Hin­dus in the Pun­jabi lan­guage to the last King of Afghanistan -Za­hir Shah. Prit­pal Singh also tells us that, “Kha­jin­der Singh was closely re­lated to for­mer Afghan Sikh MPs -Jai Singh Fani and Gajin­der Singh.”

“Kha­jin­der Singh was closely re­lated to for­mer Afghan Sikh MPs -Jai Singh Fani and Gajin­der Singh.”

US-based film-maker Man­meet Singh, who has been part of the SaveAghan­Sikhs cam­paign, in his re­ac­tion on so­cial me­dia said, “Very sad news. It is heart­break­ing.”

“Soon af­ter the March 25 at­tack on Sikhs in Kabul, I met Kha­jin­der Singh at a so­cial func­tion in Delhi. We shared con­cerns and took up the mat­ter with var­i­ous Sikh bod­ies. When I spoke to him last, he seemed over­whelmed with the prob­lems of re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion of the Afghan Sikhs who had re­cently ar­rived,” said Chandi­garh-based Gur­preet Singh, Pres­i­dent of The In­sti­tute of Sikh Stud­ies.

Due to the COVID19 re­stric­tions, I did not get an op­por­tu­nity to meet the per­sona of a gi­ant who is no more, but I hope and pray that his legacy lives on. Our deep­est em­pa­thy to his fam­ily, friends and as­so­ci­ates.

“Very sad news. It is heart­break­ing.”

The World Sikh News Team hopes and prays that some­body from amongst those who have come from Afghanistan will carry on the good work that still re­mains un­fin­ished as many Afghan Sikh fam­i­lies in Delhi are still star­ring at an un­cer­tain fu­ture.

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