MEA helps 11 members of minority communities from Afghanistan to travel to India

New Delhi: India on Sunday (July 26, 2020) granted visas and facilitated travel of around 11 members of minority communities of Afghanistan.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Nidan Singh Sachdeva, a Sikh community leader who was kidnapped and later released on July 18, is among those who reached Delhi.

Sachdeva was kidnapped in Afghanistan's Paktia province last month.

"Around 11 members, belonging to the Sikh and Hindu minority community of Afghanistan, arrived in India today," the MEA said in a statement.

India thanked the government of Afghanistan for the help and cooperation it extended, the statement said.

"We appreciate the efforts of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in extending necessary support for the safe return of these families," the MEA said.

On the matter of how India would facilitate Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan wanting to come back, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava last week had said that Hindu and Sikh communities in Afghanistan were being attacked by terrorists at the behest of their external supporters.

"We have been receiving requests from the members of these communities. They want to move to India, they want to settle down here, and despite the ongoing COVID situation, we are facilitating these requests," he had said at a weekly briefing.