'A positive development': India on Taliban restoring properties to Hindus, Sikhs

India considers reports of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan restoring properties to the country’s minority Hindu and Sikh community as “a positive development”, said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Friday.

Jaiswal’s comment comes after the Taliban recently made this claim in a media report.

The vast majority of Hindus and Sikhs left Afghanistan in 2021 when the Taliban forcefully seized power after overthrowing the democratically-elected government of the then-President Ashraf Ghani. The exodus of the communities had, however, been going on since 1970-80s when unrest began in the country following the Soviet invasion and the subsequent war and the rise of the Taliban.

‘We look at it as a positive development’

When asked at the weekly press briefing about the development, Jaiswal said that “we have also seen some reports” of the Taliban regime restoring properties to Hindus and Sikhs. He did not confirm the development on his part.

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“If the Taliban administration has decided to restore properties to Hindus and Sikhs from Afghanistan who are their nations, of course, it is something which is a positive development. This is how we look at it,” said Jaiswal.

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— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) April 12, 2024

Following the take-over of Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2021, India had facilitated the travel of hundreds of Hindus and Sikhs out of the country. This included many who held Afghan citizenship.

The MEA set up a Special Afghanistan Cell for the purpose and a total of 669 people were evacuated from Afghanistan under the ‘Operation Devi Shakti’ which included 206 Afghan nationals including Hindu and Sikh minority community members, according to a reply of Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan to Rajya Sabha in August 2022.

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In January 2023, India also facilitated the safe arrival of the final two copies of Guru Granth Sahib, the sacred book of the Sikhs, from gurudwaras in Afghanistan’s Ghazni and Kabul to New Delhi.

Restoring properties to Hindus, Sikhs usurped by previous rulers: Taliban

The self-styled Justice Ministry of the Taliban told The Hindu that a commission set up by the regime has started restoring properties of Hindus and Sikhs that were taken over during the previous governments’ tenures by various warlords of the country.

“A commission chaired by the Minister of Justice has been established to return to their owners all properties which had been usurped by warlords during the former regime,” said Suhail Shaheen, Head of the Taliban’s Political Office, to the newspaper.

Shaheen noted in the report that Narender Singh Khalsa, a Sikh Member of the Parliament of Afghanistan, has returned to the country under the scheme. He had arrived in India after the Taliban takeover but had moved to Canada later.