KABUL: Gunmen stormed a Sikh temple within the Afghan capital on Saturday, killing a minimum of one member of the neighborhood and wounding seven extra, the internal ministry stated. Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor stated the attackers lobbed a minimum of one grenade after they entered the temple, environment off a blaze within the advanced. Mins later, a automobile bomb was once detonated within the space however brought about no casualties, he added.
“One among our Sikh brothers has been killed and 7 others (had been) wounded within the assault,” Takor stated in a observation. Two attackers had been killed in an operation to protected the temple following the raid, he stated, with one Taleban fighter additionally killed. Whilst the selection of bombings throughout Afghanistan has dropped for the reason that Taleban seized energy in August, a number of deadly assaults have hit the rustic in fresh months.
“I heard gunshots and blasts,” Gurnam Singh, a Sikh neighborhood chief, informed AFP from with regards to the scene of Saturday’s assault quickly after the raid started. “Typically at the moment within the morning we have now a number of Sikh devotees who come to supply prayers on the gurdwara (temple advanced).” Photos posted on social media after the assault confirmed shattered pillars and partitions within the temple’s primary prayer corridor, with particles scattered around the ground.
A bit of a development close to the temple additionally stuck hearth, an AFP correspondent reported from the world. The home windows of a number of residential structures had been damaged from the have an effect on of the auto bomb. Close by streets had been affected by shattered glass. Taleban forces cordoned off the community, combating reporters from talking with citizens and witnesses.
Repeated assaults
A Taleban fighter deployed within the space informed AFP that some Sikhs within the temple on the time of the assault controlled to escape from a again door. A few of Kabul’s different Sikh temples had been closed for safety causes as stories of the assault unfold. No staff has to this point claimed duty for the raid. The assault got here days after an Indian delegation visited Kabul to speak about the distribution of humanitarian help from India to Afghanistan.
Afghan and Indian media stories stated the delegation additionally mentioned with Taleban officers the potential for reopening the Indian embassy. New Delhi, which had shut members of the family with the former US-backed Afghan executive, close its venture in Kabul and evacuated all its diplomatic and different body of workers when the Taleban seized energy in Afghanistan on Aug 15.
Indian International Minister S Jaishankar in a tweet condemned Saturday’s “cowardly assault” at the temple. The selection of Sikhs residing in Afghanistan has dwindled to round 200, in comparison to about part one million within the Nineteen Seventies. Maximum of those that stay are investors fascinated about promoting natural medications and digital items introduced from India.
The neighborhood has confronted repeated assaults through the years. No less than 25 folks had been killed in March 2020 when gunmen stormed any other Sikh temple in Kabul. The jihadist staff Islamic State claimed duty for that assault, which pressured many Sikhs to go away the rustic even prior to the Taleban returned to energy. IS has a historical past of focused on Afghan Sikhs, Hindus and different participants of minority communities – together with Muslim Shiites and Sufis.
A string of bombings hit the rustic right through the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which led to Afghanistan on April 30, a few of them claimed by means of IS. IS is a Sunni Islamist staff, just like the Taleban, however the two are sour opponents. The Taleban have pursued an Afghanistan loose from overseas forces, while IS need an Islamic caliphate stretching from Turkey to Pakistan and past. – AFP