KABUL, Afghanistan—Sikh and Hindus residing in Afghanistan are frustrated at being discriminated against in their home country. They feel they that have been treated “like a football” between India and Afghanistan.
Sikhs and Hindus are a very small minority in Afghanistan, though they have been living here for generations. They have kept alive their traditions and faith but life has not been easy for them.
They are Afghans by origin, but their survival is under threat at present. Many want India to accommodate them there, provide opportunities to work and settle there.
Their forefathers came here many years ago and dominated economy, but situation for them has now worsened and they are being harassed and discriminated against in daily life from the majority of the community here. “We have no employment opportunity, no work, no education for our children, no authority and we live in a scary situation, ” said Rajinder Singh, a Sikh man who is a herb trader.
Rajinder Singh, who lives in a house on rent with three other Hindu families, said that the local government does not help them and the Indian government also doesn’t take their case seriously. He said, “their future was quite uncertain in Afghanistan.”
“India says you are Afghans, and Afghanistan also questions our existence here. Now we can only hope for the Indian government to help and understand because our ancestors came from there. In other words, we are like a football between India and Afghanistan,” a seemingly frustrated Singh said.
Indira Kaur, a mother of three children, said that “people here wanted us to adopt Islam that we could not do in any case. They sometime forcibly take away our children, saying the kids belong to them. We are completely unsafe”, she said.
Indira Kaur and other women cultivate vegetables inside the rented campus so that they don’t have to go outside.
