Author: Yudhvir Rana
Publication: The Times of India
Date: October 10, 2001
URL: http://www.timesofindia.com/articleshow.asp?art_ID=1353917915
AMRITSAR: Panicked Sikhs of Afghanistan
have started fleeing the country for safer places. Three such families
have arrived in India Tuesday. The families, including seven adults and
five children, carried whatever they could manage with them, availed themselves
of the Samjhauta Express to reach the Attari railway station here Tuesday.
As many as 150 families had also
taken shelter in the Mohajir camps and gurdwaras in Peshawar, Punja Sahib
and Hasan Abdal in Pakistan and were awaiting visas from the Indian embassy
in Islamabad, it is reported. This is the first major exodus of Sikh families
out of Afghanistan in the wake of the US attacks. Some weeks ago, a few
Hindu families had left Pakistan following a wave of anti-Hindu commotion
in the aftermath of the US attacks. Chajju Singh, who runs a grocery shop
in Kabul, claimed that recent air attacks had played havoc in the city.
``I locked my house and shop, and
fled to Pakistan to save my families. From there I somehow managed to get
a visa to India,'' he said. Most of the Sikhs lived in Kabul, Ghazni, Jalalabad
and Kandahar in Afghanistan. About the Taliban, he said that the non-Muslims
were subjected to severe social restrictions.
``We were asked to wear yellow clothes
or badges to identify ourselves and women were strictly ordered to remain
at home,'' Chajju's wife, Kulwant Kaur, added. Condemning the American
attacks on Afghanistan, Chajju, whose brother had been left behind in Kabul,
said if conditions had not become so bad, he would never have left his
motherland.
Expressing concern about the gurdwaras
in Afghanistan, he said the six gurdwaras in Kabul were in a dilapidated
condition now. He feared the Taliban forces might even misuse them. Bhajan
Singh of Jalalabad said, more affluent Sikh families had already left for
various European countries whereas the poorer Hindus and Sikhs were living
at the mercy of the Taliban.
``They call us kafirs,'' he said,
apprehending that Gurdwara Rai Sahib in Kabul, on which the Sikh congregation
had spent lakhs of rupees, would be flattened by the air attacks.
Talking about usual political conditions
in Afghanistan, he said that the Arab nationals openly roamed around the
streets of Jalalabad and Kabul and ran terrorist training camps.
Asked to give details about the
camps, he, however, expressed ignorance.
Gurbax Singh, another resident of
Jalalabad who ran a cosmetic store, said that he had abandoned stocks worth
lakhs of rupees in his shop before fleeing the country. Meanwhile, Pakistani
nationals arriving at Attari railway station were cautious while answering
queries and maintained that their premier was doing things in the best
interest of Pakistan.
