Humanitarian Implications of the Afghan Gurudwara Attacks

On March 25th, one lone ISIS terrorist attacked a Sikh Gurudwara in Afghanistan in the heart of Kabul, the Afghan capital.  25 worshipers were killed and 8 injured.

Wiping out families and children!

One of the dead was a small child.  The kirtan sewadar, Harinder Singh lost his 3-year-old daughter Tanya, and his wife, Surpal Kaur, his father, Nirmal Singh Soni, father-in-law Bhagat Singh and nephew Kulwinder Singh Khalsa, while his mother was injured (source)!

The terrorist had lobbed grenades and fired from his automatic rifle while he unleashed that mayhem!

Muslim Terrorist (NOT ‘gunman’) from Kerala

It has now come to light that the IS terrorist was school dropout from Kasargod in Kerala.  His name was Mohammad Muhsin.  Most of the Indian media got his story and background wrong, as there were two Mohammad Muhsins.

In a 1:50 minute video released by Islamic State, the terrorist was saying the following in Urdu – quite surprising for someone from Kerala.

“My brothers and sisters, I am on my way to take revenge for you. I am very close to the destination and you will soon hear good news.” He also adds, referring to people in Indian jails, “you are languishing in prisons for Allah and He (Allah) will give you glad tidings”.Twitter

This Muslim terrorist from Kerala went all the way to Kerala to Afghanistan to kill people in a local Gurudwara.  Imagine someone from an inclusive society like India having such a twisted mindset!

Indian Muslim Jehadis – Treated as Slaves by Arabs and apostates in an Arab Religion

There is something interesting one notices about the terrorist who unleashed the violence in the Afghanistan Gurudwara.

The SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks militant postings and groups, said IS claimed responsibility for the attack on the group’s Aamaq media arm. The communique identified the gunman as Indian national Abu Khalid al-Hindi, who carried out the attack to avenge the plight of Muslims living under severe restrictions in Indian-ruled Kashmir, Hindu India’s only Muslim dominated state.Source

What intrigues one even more than the urge for an Indian national to go kill Sikhs in Afghanistan is how even when this terrorist was a Muslim originally, his name was changed to something else by the Islamic State.  A name which is Arabic and signifies that he is from “Hind”, the land of the Hindus.

So, was his original name not deemed to be Muslim or “pure enough”, that it had to be Arabized?  It is a known thing that the Muslims from India (and other sub-continent countries – Bangladesh and Pakistan) are treated like slaves and cannon-fodder by the Islamic state.

Indians who joined terror outfit Islamic State also known as ISIS have been subjected to discrimination, used as foot soldiers ready to be sacrificed at any given point and always viewed with distrust by the top brass mostly comprising Arabs. A report submitted to the union home ministry by central intelligence agencies said recruits from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh are considered inferior and the practice of Islam in these countries thought to be apostate.India Today

Despite being treated like dirt and slaves, and deemed to be apostates themselves, these Muslims from India, full of urge to fight for an ideology that only considers Arabs as worthy, kill and maim those who treat them as equals!  That is what is perplexing about the Muslims from India.  In the eyes of the Arabs, the Indian Muslims are not even equals.

In fact, in the eyes of Arab Islamic supremacist framework, Indians are considered dirty and bad.   A view that even the popular Sufi, Rumi shared.

Afghan Gurudwara Attacks – Planned Ethnic Cleansing

It must be added here that attacks on Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan are quite regular.  In another attack in July 2018, 19 Hindus and Sikhs were killed.

In July 2018, a convoy of Sikhs and Hindus was attacked by an Islamic State suicide bomber as they were on their way to meet Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in the eastern city of Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province. Nineteen people were killed in that attack.Source

The attack on the Gurudwara was followed by a bomb attack on the Sikhs who had gathered for the funeral services.

An explosive device disrupted Thursday’s funeral service for 25 members of Afghanistan‘s Sikh minority community who had been killed by the Islamic State group. No one was hurt in the blast, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.  The explosion went off Thursday near the gate of a crematorium in Kabul, as the frightened mourners struggled to continue with the funeral prayers and cremation.ABC News

The repeated attacks on Sikhs, specifically this one at the Gurudwara has left the local community in a state of fear and hopelessness.  They no longer feel that their lives are safe in Afghanistan anymore.  And they know why.  Because of them being non-Muslims.  As Tejvir Singh says “Our religious practices will not be tolerated by the Islamic terrorists”

Bottomline clearly being that survival of the non-Muslims in Afghanistan is well nigh impossible now.  A fact that the humanitarian Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA) in India actually acknowledged.  And like we discussed in our previous post that there is a difference between a Refugee (like a Hindu and Sikh from Afghanistan) and an Economic migrant (Muslim from Afghanistan).

The attacks on Sikhs and Hindus have been escalating and now the oft-repeated pattern is being played out again with the Afghan Hindus and Sikhs.  Now they are being asked to leave or be killed.

It is a familiar story.

The Muslims become a majority and non-Muslims are thrown out because the radicals take charge.  At that time, no one is tolerated.  There are basically three options, if you have Stockholm syndrome or are flexible with your moral compass – Leave, Convert or Die.  If you have been steadfast in not giving into the abusive  terror tactics, as these Sikhs ostensibly have been over the years, then the option is just a binary – Leave or Die.

CAA and Afghan Gurudwara Attacks

The radical ways of the Islamic groups – Taliban, Haqqani group, and Islamic State – have hardly left anyone else alive in Afghanistan other than some Muslims.  A Muslim can follow the more devout ways of Taliban and stay alive and even function properly in that society.  But a Sikh or a Hindu cannot.  It is not as if a Sikh can follow his ways devoutly and he can steer clear of trouble from Taliban, an option available to a Muslim.  The mere option of being a Sikh or a Hindu for people of those faiths, is exactly the reason why they would be – have to be (per these groups)! – killed by the radical groups.

There is no basis of equality in their experience or options.  While for a Sunni Muslim, there is a way out – follow the few rules of religious practices of Islam and stay alive.  For a Sikh, or a Hindu, there are but two options – Leave or Die.

But leave to go where?

Afghanistan has been their homeland for centuries and many millennia.  Afghanistan was once a thriving Hindu and Buddhist spiritual center.  This was their home even before the world knew of Islam!  They are being asked to leave from there.

The question again is – to where?

Pakistan?  Well, Pakistan is the one behind this scenario.  And the situation of Sikhs and Hindus there is no different.

So, where?

The only logical place is India.

And, as Captain Amrinder Singh, the Chief Minister of Punjab realized recently, it is one thing to oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on the basis that it “discriminates against Muslims”, but quite another to invite the Muslims and Sikhs from Afghanistan – or none at all – to India.  That is what his opposition to CAA really meant.  Either get the persecuted and the persecutor to India.  Or none at all.

Not even Sikhs who are being killed for being Sikhs.

What was ok to oppose when talking in hypotheticals, suddenly becomes crystal clear when one looks at the dead in the Gurudwara.  Tanya, the 3 year old, was shot not because she was a threat to the world.  But because her very existence as a Sikh, non-Muslim girl, was a theological threat to the small minds of the Islamists.

The hypotheticals no more look right or just.  Bringing in the Sikhs, sans the persecutors looks just and fair.  So much for politics and reality.

Here is a detailed set of tweets on what happened during the Afghan Gurudwara attacks.