With the Tal­iban for­ag­ing into vast ar­eas of war-torn Afghanistan, the gov­ern­ment plan­ning elite forces to counter them, the con­di­tions for Mus­lims in­im­i­cal to the Tal­iban and to Sikh and Hindu mi­nori­ties who are still en­trenched there grows fear­ful and scary by the minute. As per the World Sikh News data, some 300 Sikhs and Hin­dus are still left in Kabul, Ghazni city and Jalal­abad. Many more, who had come to New Delhi for a haven, are lan­guish­ing there with the hope of re­set­tle­ment in the West. Hope­ful of a pos­i­tive re­sponse as in the past, the World Sikh Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Canada, Khalsa Aid Canada and the Man­meet Singh Bhullar Foun­da­tion have sought a spe­cial arrange­ment by Canada to air­lift these vul­ner­a­ble sec­tions given the lurk­ing dan­ger. WSN re­ports.

In a joint com­mu­nique is­sued by WSO, Khalsa Aid Canada and the Man­meet Singh Bhullar Foun­da­tion, they have asked the Gov­ern­ment of Canada to act swiftly by pro­vid­ing a way of safety for vul­ner­a­ble pop­u­la­tions in Afghanistan which in­clude Sikh and Hindu mi­nori­ties.

The at­tack in Jalal­abad two years ago and the at­tack in the Gur­d­wara Guru Har Rai Sahib in Kabul last year demon­strates that for long the  Sikh and Hindu mi­nori­ties -men, women and chil­dren, have been tar­gets of ex­trem­ist groups. 

“As the sit­u­a­tion on the ground in Afghanistan con­tin­ues to de­te­ri­o­rate, we are see­ing Afghan in­ter­preters who worked side by side with Cana­di­ans, com­ing un­der threat and fear­ing for their lives. Reuters jour­nal­ist Dan­ish Sid­diqui, who him­self was do­ing all he could to share the sto­ries of the dev­as­ta­tion of the Afghan peo­ple, lost his life.”

How strong the fear is can be gauged from the state­ment, “Fur­ther loss of life is not a mat­ter of if, it is a mat­ter of when.”

“Since 2015, the Man­meet Singh Bhullar Foun­da­tion has worked with The Gov­ern­ment of Canada and com­mu­nity part­ners to bring 60 refugees to Canada with 120 re­main­ing in the queue to ar­rive shortly through the Pri­vate Spon­sor­ship of Refugees Pro­gram.”

“As the sit­u­a­tion on the ground in Afghanistan con­tin­ues to de­te­ri­o­rate, we are see­ing Afghan in­ter­preters who worked side by side with Cana­di­ans, com­ing un­der threat and fear­ing for their lives. Reuters jour­nal­ist Dan­ish Sid­diqui, who him­self was do­ing all he could to share the sto­ries of the dev­as­ta­tion of the Afghan peo­ple, lost his life.”

How­ever dif­fi­cult it may ap­pear, if US, Canada and UK-friendly in­ter­preters can be air-lifted, mak­ing im­mi­gra­tion pos­si­ble for a few hun­dred is not an up­hill task. It will be a hu­man­i­tar­ian ges­ture for which the Sikhs will ever re­main grate­ful to Canada if it will “al­low for these vul­ner­a­ble re­li­gious mi­nori­ties to find refuge in Canada.”

“Now is the time for progress to be ex­pe­dited to en­sure that we can as­sist as many Afghan Sikhs and Hin­dus that face deep un­cer­tainty and im­mi­nent dan­ger on an hourly and daily ba­sis,” said Tar­jin­der Kaur Bhullar, of the Man­meet Singh Bhullar Foun­da­tion. 

“We urge the Gov­ern­ment of Canada to ex­pe­dite and reaf­firm their com­mit­ment to work with us to en­sure the safe set­tle­ment of these fam­i­lies in Canada at the same time as they ad­dress the crit­i­cal and ur­gent need to as­sist Afghan trans­la­tors,” she added.

Jatin­der Singh, Na­tional Di­rec­tor for Khalsa Aid Canada clar­i­fied that “as an in­ter­na­tional hu­man­i­tar­ian re­lief agency, we have seen first-hand what hap­pens to mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties dur­ing the civil con­flict. We urge the Gov­ern­ment of Canada to not only pro­vide safety to those who as­sisted it as in­ter­preters but also to en­sure that mi­nor­ity com­mu­ni­ties such as the Afghan Hin­dus and Sikhs are also pro­vided safe set­tle­ment as a mat­ter of ur­gency.”

“The sit­u­a­tion for Sikhs and Hin­dus in Afghanistan is dire and they face an ex­is­ten­tial threat to their very sur­vival.”

WSO Pres­i­dent Tejin­der Singh Sidhu said, “The sit­u­a­tion for Sikhs and Hin­dus in Afghanistan is dire and they face an ex­is­ten­tial threat to their very sur­vival.”

Un­der Sec­tion 25.2 of the Im­mi­gra­tion and Refugee Pro­tec­tion Act, the gov­ern­ment of Canada can cre­ate a spe­cial pro­gram and the be­lea­guered Afghan Sikhs await this ges­ture from the Cana­dian gov­ern­ment, as all of the NATO forces with­draw from Afghanistan in a few weeks. 

The time to act is now or else, God for­bid, the sit­ting ducks in Afghanistan may be­come vic­tims.