New Delhi: Afghan Minorities Leaders in India have appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for issuance of e-visas to 222 Afghan Hindus and Sikhs and facilitate their evacuation.
According to sources, an emergency meeting was jointly called by the Afghan Hindu & Sikh community leaders in India on Sunday for discussion over the evacuation of community members stranded in Afghanistan. The meeting was held at Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbarin Manohar Nagar in New Delhi.
The house passed a resolution and appealed to the India government to evacuate and issue e-visas to 216 Afghan citizens belonging to Hindu & Sikh communities for two months and requested to facilitate six others who do not hold valid travel documents.
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The house recorded its sincere appreciation to the Government of India for taking proactive steps toward the interests of minorities living in Afghanistan and extending all possible assistance including the recent evacuation of 77 Hindus and Sikhs after the takeover by the Taliban.
Former Afghan MP Narinder Singh Khalsa, his brother Sandal Singh Khalsa (advisor to former President Ghani) and Manjeet Singh Lamba also attended the meeting. Sources said that when the house conveyed its resentment over their proposed plan to return to Taliban led Afghanistan, they said they have to return due to personal business reasons including alleged grabbing of the estate owned by Narinder Singh Khalsa at Jalalabad by the new regime.
The community leaders warned them and instructed them not to return till further notice until the political and security situation stabilizes in the Islamic nation and this was followed by another resolution of the house stating that no Afghan citizen belonging to the Hindu and Sikh communities residing in India will visit Afghanistan irrespective of any reasons till further notice to avoid any unforeseen incident, sources said.
Afghan leaders including Partap Singh (Gurdwara Sri Guru Arjan Dev), Guljeet Singh (Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbar), Mansa Ram (Gurdwara Guru Amardas Darbar), Hira Singh (Gurdwara Guru Har Rai Sahib ), Manohar Singh (Khalsa Diwan Welfare Society ), Harinder Singh Soni (Sri Guru Singh Sabha), Baldev Singh, Dr Beant Singh, Fateh Singh, Satinder Singh (Bhai Nand Lal Society and Dilip Singh Vakil attended the meeting along with 50 Afghan origin Hindus and Sikhs residing in India.
