Hundreds of people, including Afghan Hindus and Sikhs, were evacuated by India. Three replicas of the Guru Granth Sahib were airlifted out of Kabul, where the situation has been chaotic, with many people dying and fleeing Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. After a stopover in Tajikistan’s capital city, Dushanbe, Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and V Muraleedharan welcomed the Guru Granth Sahib and 44 Afghan Sikhs. They arrived in India on a special Air India aircraft from Kabul.
Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted, “Blessed to receive & pay homage to three sacred Swaroop of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji from Kabul to Delhi a little time ago,” with a video of him carrying a copy of the holy book. The three replicas of the Guru Granth Sahib will be delivered to Guru Arjan Dev Ji Gurdwara in New Mahavir Nagar in the capital.
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At the airport, BJP politician RP Singh and Manjinder Singh Sirsa, president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, were also there. “Until additional arrangements are established, the Afghan Sikhs will remain at a hotel in Karol Bagh,” said Kanv Bhalla, an entrepreneur organising restoration efforts on behalf of New York-based benefactor Mandeep Singh Sobti.
The Afghan Sikhs were among the 78 individuals transported to India, including 25 Indian nationals. “Assisting in the safe return to the United States from Afghanistan. AI 1956 was in way from Dushanbe to Delhi, carrying 78 passengers, 25 of whom were Indian nationals. On a @IAF MCC aircraft, evacuees were brought in from Kabul “Earlier in the day, Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), tweeted.
According to Puneet Singh Chandhok, head of the Indian World Forum, which coordinates the evacuation operations with the ministry of external affairs and the IAF, over 200 additional Afghan Sikhs and Hindus remain stuck in Afghanistan. According to Chandhok, they have taken refuge in the Karte Parwan Gurdwara in Kabul, which is near the airport. Chandhok estimates that another 75 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus would be evacuated shortly.
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According to those seeking cover within the gurdwara, one of the significant obstacles in the rescue attempts is the 10-kilometre trip to the Kabul airport through several checkpoints. Taliban fighters man the majority of the checkpoints. In the face of the increasingly deteriorating security situation in Kabul and other parts of the nation, India has ramped up efforts to evacuate its people and Afghans. Since August 16, a day after the Taliban overtook Kabul, India has evacuated hundreds of people from Afghanistan.
