Gunmen, suicide bombers attack Sikh gurdwara in Kabul

By Asia Samachar Team | AGFHANISTAN |

The small Sikh minority community in Afghanistan once again came under fire when their place of worship in Kabul was attacked by unidentified gunmen and suicide bombers today.

Some 200 Sikhs were believed to be in the the Sikh gurdwara in the Shorbazar area when the attack happened around 07:45 (03:15 GMT).

Afghan security forces had blocked off the area and were battling the attackers, and had killed two of them, Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said in a message to journalists.

“The majority of people were rescued, unfortunately there are casualties,” he was quoted by Reuters, adding that defence forces would take some time to entirely secure the area as they were moving slowly to prevent civilian casualties.

It was not immediately clear how many attackers there were or who they were, the report added.

A Ministry of Health spokesman said one child had been killed and 15 people wounded but the toll could rise.

Sikhs have been the target of attack by Islamist militants before in South Asia. A Taliban spokesman, in a message on Twitter, denied responsibility for the attack.

Narender Singh Khalsa, a member of parliament who represents the tiny Sikh community, was also quoted as saying he had reports that four people had been killed and up to 200 people trapped inside the temple in the early morning attack.

“Three suicide bombers entered a dharamsala,” he said, referring to a sanctuary area in a temple compound.

In 2018, a suicide bombing targeting the Sikh community and claimed by the Islamic State militant group killed more than a dozen people in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad.