SOURCE: TIMES NOW
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh who had called the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 divisive and passed a resolution against it has now sought help from the MEA for the evacuation of Sikh families stranded in Afghanistan. “Dear S. Jaishankar, there are a large number of Sikh families who want to be flown out of Afghanistan,” the Chief Minister tweeted. Requesting the MEA to airlift the Sikhs at the earliest, Singh said, “In this moment of crisis, it’s our bounden duty to help them.”
Jaswant Singh Thekedar, the founder of Dal Khalsa – a Sikh separatist organisation, has also requested the Indian government to shelter the remaining families of Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan. Amarinder Singh’s statement comes after armed terrorists affiliated to the Islamic State killed 25 civilians in a terror attack on the 400-year-old Gurdwara in Shor Bazar in Kabul on Wednesday.
Who carried out the attack: Taliban, Haqqani Network or ISI?
While the Islamic State affiliate in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the attack, experts including Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani believe that Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), carried out the attack to oppose Ashraf Ghani, who was re-elected as the President of Afghanistan last month.
The Afghan Special Forces sources have blamed the Haqqani network – which is backed by the Pakistani security establishment – for the dastardly attack.
Jaswant Singh Thekedar, however, has blamed the Taliban for the attack, a charge denied by the ultraconservative political and religious faction.
In a video message, Singh said, “In Afghanistan, the way the Taliban carried out a barbaric attack on the Sikhs in Kabul’s historic gurdwara and killed children and women who were praying for the people affected by coronavirus pandemic is highly condemnable.”
Our request has been accepted: Dal Khalsa founder
The separatist leader also stated that his request to the Indian government to allow the remaining Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan to settle in India has been accepted.
“Our request has been accepted and after the COVID-19 crisis. Whoever will apply for a visa, the Indian government will facilitate them,” ANI quoted him as saying.
Since the Taliban grabbed power in the 1990s, the Sikhs and other minorities in the landlocked country have been persecuted. The population of Sikhs in the country which was once close to a quarter of a million now stands at less than 1000.
from Indian Defence Research Wing https://ift.tt/3bvYcIf
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