{"id":8187,"date":"2016-06-23T15:22:13","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T15:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/globalpress.hinduismnow.org?p=8184&amp;preview_id=8184"},"modified":"2016-06-23T15:22:13","modified_gmt":"2016-06-23T15:22:13","slug":"afghanistans-dwindling-sikh-hindu-communities-flee-abuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/?p=8187","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan\u2019s dwindling Sikh, Hindu communities flee abuses | RNS"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\">\n<div id=\"attachment_617210\" class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-617210\" src=\"http:\/\/1aon88369c3gtkxjg19cnprs.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/thumbRNS-AFGHANISTAN-MINORITY1.jpg\" alt=\"Afghan Sikh Jagtar Singh Laghmani\" width=\"771\" height=\"578\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Afghan Sikh Jagtar Singh Laghmani, 50, sits at his traditional herb shop on June 19, 2016, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo by Mohammad Ismail\/REUTERS<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>KABUL (Reuters) On a bright day in downtown Kabul, Jagtar Singh Laghmani was in his traditional herb shop when a man turned up, drew a knife and told him to convert to Islam or he would cut his throat. Only bystanders and other shopkeepers saved his life.<\/p>\n<p>The incident earlier this month was the latest attack on a dwindling community of Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan, a deeply conservative Muslim country struggling with growing insecurity caused by an Islamist insurgency and economic challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Once a thriving minority, only a handful of Sikh and Hindu families remain. Many have chosen to flee the country of their birth, blaming growing discrimination and intolerance.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1\">\n<aside id=\"doubleclick_widget-5\" class=\"widget widget-1 odd default widget_doubleclick_widget clearfix\"><\/aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThis is how we begin our day \u2014 with fear and isolation. If you are not a Muslim, you are not a human in their eyes,\u201d said Jagtar Singh, speaking in his tiny shop in the bustling center of Kabul. \u201cI don\u2019t know what to do or where to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For centuries, Hindu and Sikh communities played a prominent role in merchant trade and money lending in Afghanistan, although today they are known more for medicinal herb shops.<\/p>\n<p>According to Avtar Singh, chairman of the national council of Hindus and Sikhs, the community now numbers fewer than 220 families, compared with around 220,000 members before the collapse of the Kabul government in 1992.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2\">\n<aside id=\"doubleclick_widget-6\" class=\"widget widget-1 odd default widget_doubleclick_widget clearfix\"><\/aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Once spread across the country, the community is now mainly concentrated in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Ghazni and the capital, Kabul.<\/p>\n<p>Although Afghanistan is almost entirely Muslim, its constitution, drawn up after U.S.-led forces drove out the Taliban government in 2001, theoretically guarantees the right of minority<span class=\"highlight\">\u00a0religion<\/span>s to worship freely.<\/p>\n<p>But as the conflict drags on, Avtar Singh said, conditions are\u00a0worse than under the Taliban, which imposed strict Islamic laws, staged public executions and banned girls from schools.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3\">\n<aside id=\"doubleclick_widget-92\" class=\"widget widget-1 odd default hidden-phone widget_doubleclick_widget clearfix\"><\/aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Hindus and Sikhs had to wear yellow patches that identified them in public, but were otherwise seldom bothered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe good old days have long gone when we were treated as Afghans, not as outsiders,\u201d Avtar Singh said from a temple in Kabul, all the while keeping an eye on visitors by using monitors linked to security cameras.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur lands have been taken by powerful figures in the government, especially by the warlords. We are facing threats, and this small community is getting smaller and smaller every day,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, dozens of Hindu and Sikh families left Helmand, where Taliban insurgents, who have a presence in much of the southern province, sent a letter demanding 200,000 Afghani ($2,800) a month from the community.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_617225\" class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\">\n<div id=\"attachment_617225\" style=\"width: 781px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter module image\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-617225\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-617225 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/1aon88369c3gtkxjg19cnprs.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/thumbRNS-AFGHANISTAN-MINORITY2.jpg\" alt=\"Afghan Hindu and Sikh families\" width=\"771\" height=\"578\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-617225\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Afghan Hindu and Sikh families wait for lunch inside a Gurudwara, or a Sikh temple, during a religious ceremony June 8, 2016, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo by Mohammad Ismail\/REUTERS<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">\n<\/div>\n<h2>Hostility<\/h2>\n<p>Tensions have surfaced in Qalacha, an area on the outskirts of Kabul where the Sikh and Hindu community owns a high-walled crematorium.<\/p>\n<p>As the capital has expanded in recent years, the neighbourhood has become densely populated, and some newer residents oppose Hindu and Sikh cremations, a practice foreign to Muslims, who bury their dead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen they burn the body the smell makes our family sick and we don\u2019t want this to happen here,\u201d said Ahmad Timor, a Muslim resident in Qalacha.<\/p>\n<p>The Sikhs say local Muslim hard-liners have stirred up hostility against them, and the community now requires police protection for funeral rituals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey throw stones and bricks at us, at the bodies of the dead, whenever there is a funeral,\u201d said Avtar Singh, pointing to a newly built house next to the crematorium.<\/p>\n<p>Dahi-ul Haq Abid, deputy minister for Haj and religious affairs, said the government had done what it could to improve the livelihood of Hindus and Sikhs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe agree that conflicts pushed them out of the country, but their condition is not as bad as they claim,\u201d Abid added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have allocated them a place to burn their bodies because inside the city people complained about the smell, but they did not agree,\u201d he told Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>Harassment is also common.<\/p>\n<p>Jasmeet Singh, 8, stopped going to school because of what he said was daily harassment. He and other children from the community now either go to private schools or study inside the temple.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile I was at school, other students were making fun of me. They were removing my turban, hitting me and calling me Hindu and kaffir (infidel),\u201d said Jasmeet, as other boys nodded in agreement.<\/p>\n<p>Increasing numbers of Sikhs and Hindus have moved to India, their spiritual homeland, but some say they remain foreigners wherever they go.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we go to India, we are known as Afghans, but when we are here, we are seen as outsiders even if we are native Afghan,\u201d said Baljit Singh, a shopkeeper in Kabul. \u201cWe are lost between both worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/religionnews.com\/2016\/06\/23\/afghanistans-dwindling-sikh-hindu-communities-flee-new-abuses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Afghanistan\u2019s dwindling Sikh, Hindu communities flee abuses | Religion News Service<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Afghan Sikh Jagtar Singh Laghmani, 50, sits at his traditional herb shop on June 19, 2016, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo by Mohammad Ismail\/REUTERS KABUL (Reuters) On a bright day in downtown Kabul, Jagtar Singh Laghmani was in his traditional herb shop when a man turned up, drew a knife and told him to convert to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1695,1152,242,1203],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalpress-new.hinduismnow.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}