MEA says 357 members of Afghanistan minority community arrive in India

New Delhi: Facing numerous terror threats, a total of 357 members of the Afghan minority community has arrived in India and the Indian mission in Kabul helped them. India said that it has been receiving requests from Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan to grant them permission to settle down in India.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Anurag Shrivastava in response to a question said, "We have been receiving requests from Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan to grant them permission to settle down in India. The requests have gone up after the attack in the Gurdwara in March 2020."

"We see targeted persecution of minority community members by terrorist and their sponsors and this is a matter of serious concern. Now to ensure the safety and well-being, our mission in Kabul has been in contact with them and facilitated smooth arrival from Afghanistan despite COVID-19 related restrictions," he said.

The MEA spokesperson said, "So far 357 members of the minority community have arrived from Afghanistan to India in the lockdown and Indian Sikh community here is assisting their stay comfortable in India."

The March 25 attack on Gurdwara Har Rai Sahib saw the death of 24 Afghan Sikhs and one Indian Sikh. This was one of the worst attack on the Afghan Sikh community since the 2018 Jalalabad attack in which 19 people died, mostly Sikh.

Earlier in 2020, the first batch of 11 Afghan Sikhs, keen to come to India, landed in Delhi in June. This included Delhi based Afghan Sikh Nidan Singh who was abducted but later released. 10 of the 11 Afghan Sikhs were the family members of Sikhs killed in Kabul gurdwara terror attack.