Two days ago, the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity ob­served World Refugee Day. UN­HCR put out videos and state­ments about refugees in many parts of the world. The Afghan Sikhs were not part of the story. The of­fi­cially elected Afghan gov­ern­ment is kind to  Afghan Sikhs and Hin­dus and aware of their tri­als and tribu­la­tions, yet un­able to make a dif­fer­ence to their sit­u­a­tion. WSN ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh writes that the ab­duc­tion of a Sikh vol­un­teer -Nidan Singh Sachdeva, once again fo­cusses on the pre­car­i­ous con­di­tion of Afghan Sikhs.

AFGHAN SIKHS -REFUGEES IN THEIR OWN COUN­TRY, liv­ing by the day, per­haps by the hour, await their turn to reach Canada, USA, UK or In­dia -any coun­try of their choice to be of­fi­cially de­clared refugees un­der the UN dis­pen­sa­tion. The Afghan Sikh Di­as­pora and the Sikhs world­wide, are sit­ting tight with fin­gers crossed, pray­ing for peace.

With the news that a Sikh Gur­d­wara vol­un­teer -Nadan Singh Sachdev -a Se­ha­jd­hari Sikh of the Khost clan, has been ab­ducted, pur­port­edly by the Tal­iban, from Chamkani, Pak­tia Province, where he was do­ing Sewa in a Gur­d­wara Sahib, adds fuel to the fire. Re­port­edly, the Gov­ern­ment of Afghanistan is en­gaged in re­pair­ing Sikh re­li­gious in­sti­tu­tions and Nadan Singh was re­spon­si­ble for re­pair­ing a re­li­gious place when he as whisked away. Com­mu­nity sources say that Afghan Sikh mem­ber Narinder Singh is in touch with his gov­ern­ment and the Tal­iban lead­ers to get Nadan Singh back.

Re­cently, ac­cord­ing to Afghanistan’s min­istry of in­ter­nal af­fairs, the killers of Preet Kaur, who was looted and killed in Kabul in Feb­ru­ary this year were ar­rested on 19 June 2020.

It is time for In­dia to grant visas and arrange travel of the Sikh and Hindu com­mu­nity mem­bers to Delhi.  Barely two flights are needed to bring close to 600 odd peo­ple whose bags are ready and they are will­ing to fly and abide by quar­an­tine reg­u­la­tions. All Afghan Sikhs and their well-wish­ers are will­ing to pay for their air­fare and the Delhi Sikh Gur­d­wara Man­age­ment Com­mit­tee has com­mit­ted to pro­vid­ing iso­la­tion and other fa­cil­i­ties in view of the pan­demic.

As Canada is also seized with the Afghan Sikh sit­u­a­tion and has en­abled a sec­tion of them to land on Cana­dian soil in the past, no time should be lost to repa­tri­ate those who want to mi­grate to mul­ti­cul­tural Canada.

The United Na­tions High Com­mis­sioner for Refugees -UN­HCR, the United Na­tions As­sis­tance Mis­sion in Afghanistan -UNAMA, Canada and the US as ac­tive par­tic­i­pants in the war zone, with their man­power and lo­gis­ti­cal re­sources, must im­me­di­ately scale up the se­cu­rity of the Afghan Sikhs and Hin­dus in Kabul, Ghazni and Jalal­abad.

In­di­a’s main op­po­si­tion party -the In­dian Na­tional Con­gress, has been con­ducive to the sit­u­a­tion and sta­tus of Afghan Sikhs in the past, must raise its voice and seek im­me­di­ate in­ter­ven­tion from the BJP gov­ern­ment. The Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal -an ally of the rul­ing Bhar­tiya Janata Party owes it to the Sikhs to per­suade the Sikh Civil avi­a­tion min­is­ter, the Home Min­is­ter and the Ex­ter­nal Af­fairs Min­is­ter to promptly re­spond to the sit­u­a­tion.

In­di­a’s main op­po­si­tion party -the In­dian Na­tional Con­gress, has been con­ducive to the sit­u­a­tion and sta­tus of Afghan Sikhs in the past, must raise its voice and seek im­me­di­ate in­ter­ven­tion from the BJP gov­ern­ment. The Shi­ro­mani Akali Dal -an ally of the rul­ing Bhar­tiya Janata Party owes it to the Sikhs to per­suade the Sikh Civil avi­a­tion min­is­ter, the Home Min­is­ter and the Ex­ter­nal Af­fairs Min­is­ter to promptly re­spond to the sit­u­a­tion.

Up­dates: Afg Sikh Sen­a­tor @DrA­narkaliH tells me that Nedan Singh is a re­li­gious ser­vant who was in Chamkani to vol­un­teerly serve the his­toric Gu­ruNank Gur­d­wara.

“He was kid­napped mid­night from the Gur­d­wara. We are try­ing to lo­cate him. He is a poor fam­ily man.” #Afghanistan pic.twit­ter.com/​8kYGc­NAKsY

— Bashir Ah­mad Gwakh (@bashirg­wakh) June 21, 2020

As war clouds gather on the hori­zon with Indo-China stand­off and Indo-Pak war-like prepa­ra­tions, Afghan Sikhs are in an ex­tremely vul­ner­a­ble po­si­tion. Death seems to be stalk­ing the poor­est of the poor Afghan Sikhs strug­gling to make a liv­ing in lock­down con­di­tions.

The Afghan Sikhs SOS calls have not been at­tended to ef­fec­tively so far. The tears of the last tragedy of 25 March have not yet dried up. Are we wait­ing for an­other tragedy to hap­pen?