The outcry and condemnation led to the Taliban restoring the Nishan Sahib on the roof of the Gurdwara Thala Sahib in Paktia which its local commanders had got removed a day earlier, according to reports quoting Singh Chandhok, president of the Indian World Puneet Forum. Chandok said he was personally informed by the local caretaker Rahman Chamkani that the Nishan Sahib has been restored “with its proper dignity’’ at the roof of the gurdwara, said the reports.
Taliban officials, including their commanders, visited Thala Sahib “and conveyed their assent for functioning of the Gurdwara as per its customs and also directed that the Nishan Sahib be restored immediately in their presence,” he said.
“I and the diaspora deeply appreciate the efforts of the Government of India and the International Community for ensuring that the rights of minorities are well protected in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,’’ said Chandok.
“There is a lot of fear and uncertainty in Afghanistan and the caretaker was intimidated by a Taliban announcement about flags. He removed the Nishan Sahib himself as he feared retribution from the Taliban,” claimed Gurvinder Singh of United Sikhs.
But Charan Singh, a local resident, had claimed the Taliban fighters had initially threatened the caretaker and later forced him to take it down from its rightful place. The armed men, he said, forced the caretaker to remove the Nishan Sahib from its assigned place and tied it to a tree so that it cannot be viewed as a distinct symbol from afar.
The Gurdwara, located in Chamkani area of Paktia, was once visited by Guru Nanak. It has Guru Sahib’s Prakash and is maintained by a dozen Sikhs families that remain in the region. The Gurdwara was in the news in July when Nidan Singh Sachdeva, a leader of the Hindu and Sikh community in Afghanistan, was abducted from its premises. The wider region called “Loya Paktia” has been a Mujahideen and then Taliban\Haqqani Group stronghold since the early 1980s. India had then blamed the Haqqani Group and the Lashkar-e-Toiba for the massacre.
India had condemned the forcible removal of the Nishan Sahib atop the roof of Gurdwara Thala Sahib and hoped that “Afghanistan’s future must be one where interest of all sections of Afghan society including minorities and women are protected”.
Sachdeva’s kidnapping had followed a massacre of 30 Sikhs in Gurdwara Guru Har Rai in Kabul in May last year. At that time, India had offered all possible assistance to the affected families of the Hindu and Sikh community of Afghanistan. The frequent targeting of the Sikh community has seen the 10,000 strong Sikh and Hindu community reduced to just a few thousands.
