KABUL — Gunmen stormed a Sikh temple in the
Afghan capital
on Saturday, killing at least one member of the community and wounding seven
more, the interior ministry said.
اضافة اعلان
Ministry spokesman
Abdul Nafi Takor said the
attackers lobbed at least one grenade when they entered the temple, setting off
a blaze in the complex.
Minutes later, a car bomb was detonated in the area
but caused no casualties, he added.
“One of our Sikh brothers has been killed and seven
others (were) wounded in the attack,” Takor said in a statement.
Two attackers were killed in an operation to secure
the temple following the raid, he said, with one Taliban fighter also killed.
While the number of bombings across Afghanistan has
dropped since the Taliban seized power in August, several fatal attacks have
hit the country in recent months.
“I heard gunshots and blasts,” Gurnam Singh, a Sikh
community leader, told AFP from close to the scene of Saturday’s attack soon
after the raid began.
“Generally at that time in the morning we have
several Sikh devotees who come to offer prayers at the gurdwara (temple
complex).”
Footage posted on social media after the attack
showed shattered pillars and walls in the temple’s main prayer hall, with
debris scattered across the floor.
A section of a building near the temple also caught
fire, an AFP correspondent reported from the area.
The windows of several residential buildings were
broken from the impact of the car bomb. Nearby streets were littered with
shattered glass.
Taliban forces cordoned off the neighborhood,
preventing journalists from speaking with residents and witnesses.
Repeated attacks
A Taliban fighter deployed
in the area told AFP that some Sikhs in the temple at the time of the attack
managed to flee from a back door.
Some of Kabul’s other Sikh temples were closed for
security reasons as reports of the attack spread.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the
raid.
The attack came days after an Indian delegation
visited
Kabul to discuss the distribution of humanitarian aid from India to
Afghanistan.
Afghan and Indian media reports said the delegation
also discussed with Taliban officials the possibility of reopening the Indian
embassy.
New Delhi, which had close relations with the
previous
US-backed Afghan government, shut its mission in Kabul and evacuated
all its diplomatic and other staff when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan
on August 15.
Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar in a tweet
condemned Saturday’s “cowardly attack” on the temple.
The number of Sikhs living in Afghanistan has dwindled
to around 200, compared to about half a million in the 1970s.
Most of those who remain are traders involved in
selling herbal medicines and electronic goods brought from India.
The community has faced repeated attacks over the
years. At least 25 people were killed in March 2020 when gunmen stormed another
Sikh temple in Kabul.
Daesh claimed responsibility for that attack, which
forced many Sikhs to leave the country even before the Taliban returned to
power.
Daesh has a history of targeting Afghan Sikhs,
Hindus, and other members of minority communities — including Muslim Shiites
and Sufis.
A string of bombings hit the country during the
Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ended in Afghanistan on April 30, some of
them claimed by Daesh.
Daesh is a Sunni Islamist group, like the Taliban,
but the two are bitter rivals.
The Taliban have pursued an Afghanistan free from
foreign forces, whereas Daesh wants an Islamic caliphate stretching from Turkey
to Pakistan and beyond.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
