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The tiny Hindu population in Afghanistan has been asked by the fundamentalist Taliban regime to wear yellow cloth to identify themselves and follow the Shariat or face prosecution.
In a recent decree, a separate dress-code has been fixed for Muslims and non-Muslims (Hindus), and a Hindu household is required to put a two metre yellow cloth on his house so that the identity is known.
According to the decree, a copy of which was made available to the agencies, Hindus and Muslims cannot live in the same house. Hindus, living in such a house, have been asked to leave within three days and vice versa. Any violation invite prosecution. Heads of Hindu places of worship have been asked to prepare a list of such places/houses where Hindus and Muslims are living together.
Hindus cannot build new prayer houses. They have been asked to conduct prayers in existing ones. Places of worship once destroyed cannot be rebuilt.
Hindu men cannot wear turbans, while Hindu women should wrap their body with a big yellow 'chadder' with two small holes near the eyes. Hindu women can go to markets but they should wear an iron necklace and their body should be wrapped in yellow 'chadder.' No Hindu can keep arms.
Over the past few years, Hindu and Sikh Afghans have watched helplessly as their homes, businesses and places of worship have been destroyed.
As minorities in a fundamentalist Islamic country, Hindus are in deep trouble. Anything that happens in India against Muslims, temples and Hindu property are looted and burnt in Kabul, Kandahar and Jalalabad. The once- thriving Hindu community in Afghanistan, which numbered about 50,000, has now dwindled to about 50 in some parts. Many Hindus have escaped to India, the US and Germany. Indians have lived in Afghanistan for thousands of years. In Kandahar, 5,000 Hindus lived at one time. Afghanistan was originally a Hindu country and 99 per cent of the Hindu Afghans were born there. A statue of Buddha stood in Kabul for more than 2,000 years and a mountain is named Asha Mai, after a Hindu goddess.
The Hindus were mostly prosperous merchants dealing in clothes, dry fruits, pharmaceuticals, currency exchange, and Indian tea and spices. Some Hindus had been so powerful that they had even controlled the exchange market. However, now thousands of Hindus live in slums. Hindus have become easy targets mainly because they have done economically well.
After the Taliban regime took over,
many Hindus fled to India, some even via Pakistan.
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