Taliban Announces Return of Former Representative of Sikhs & Hindus In Afghan Parliament

The Taliban's Commission for Return and Communication with former Afghan officials announced that Narendra Singh Khalsa, the representative of Hindus and Sikhs in the former Afghan parliament, has returned to the country from Canada.

With the Taliban's takeover of power in Afghanistan and continued attacks on Hindu and Sikh citizens, majority of them fled the country.

After the Taliban's return in August 2021, several explosions occurred at Sikh temples.

Narendra Singh was the only representative of Hindus and Sikhs in the former Afghan parliament. He entered politics after his father was killed in a suicide attack in Nangarhar.

Five months after the Taliban entered Kabul, Singh had a meeting with the Taliban's deputy prime minister for political affairs in Kabul along with some Hindus and Sikhs.

In October 2021, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, National Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party of India, reported that a group of armed individuals, identifying themselves as Taliban officials, entered the Gurdwara in the Kart-e-Parwan area of Kabul and broke all CCTV cameras during their search operation.

Following the 2022 attack on the Sikh temple in Kabul, which was claimed by ISIS, a significant number of Afghan Hindu and Sikh citizens fled the country and sought refuge in India.

In response to these attacks, the UN Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan emphasised on the need for documenting, investigating, and holding accountable those responsible for systematic attacks against religious minorities in Afghanistan.

Hindu and Sikh representatives have engaged in numerous meetings with Taliban officials in Kabul over the past nearly three years. They have expressed concerns about the usurpation of their lands and have urged the Taliban to address the issue.