VZCZCXRO5145
RR RUEHDBU RUEHPW RUEHSL
DE RUEHBUL #1591/01 1721721
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 211721Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9600
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 001591 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KIRF PGOV PREL AF
SUBJECT: THE SIKHS OF AFGHANISTAN - A VANISHING COMMUNITY 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY:  Upper House MP Awtar Singh Khalsa, the only 
Sikh or Hindu member of the Afghan parliament, said the Sikh 
and Hindu community had dwindled from approximately 50,000 
families before the jihad against the Soviets, to 
approximately 6,000 people at present.  He attributed the 
population decline mostly to migration.  Many of the 
remaining Sikhs and Hindus would leave the country if they 
could afford to do so.  The Sikhs and Hindus, he added, face 
many problems, from poverty to discrimination and lack of 
representation in the government. 
 
Dwindling Population 
-------------------- 
 
¶2.  (U)  Senator Awtar Singh Khalsa is the recognized leader 
of the Sikh community in Kabul. (Though of separate faiths, 
the Sikhs and Hindus are treated as one community by the 
Afghan people, and by GIRoA.)  Before the war with the 
Soviets, there were 50,000 Sikh and Hindu families living in 
Afghanistan.  Now there are about 6,000 people in the 
provinces of Nangarhar, Khost, Ghazni, Helmand and Kandahar. 
He attributed the decreased numbers mainly to emigration. 
Many families fled during the war with the Soviets, and 
either stayed abroad or returned to find their homes and 
shops were looted or destroyed, and their land often seized. 
 
¶3.  (U) Under the Taliban, Khalsa said, Hindus were forced to 
display orange or yellow badges on their clothes and temples 
(Sikhs were easily identifiable by their headdresses).  The 
Taliban had also forbidden Sikhs and Hindus privileges 
allowed to other Afghans, such as the right to carry weapons, 
ride horses, or return to the country once they left.  He 
recalled being summoned to the Taliban's Committee for the 
Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice headquarters, 
where Hindus had been brought in to the station and told they 
must convert to Islam or leave the country.  Khalsa said the 
Sikhs and Hindus refused to convert, but found a sympathetic 
ear at the Taliban's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was 
able to help them resolve the issue. 
 
Multitude of Problems 
--------------------- 
 
¶4.  (U) The Hindus and Sikhs still face a number of problems. 
 They are often barred by other Afghans from practicing their 
funereal rites, which require them to burn their dead.  The 
Hindus and Sikhs burn their dead in the open with wood 
because they lack a crematorium facility in which to burn 
them.  Khalsa said the Hindus and Sikhs of Kabul have been 
burning their dead at a site in District 8 (Qalacha) for the 
past 120 years.  Since 2002, the Sikhs and Hindus must always 
have police protection to use the site, since local residents 
have frequently objected to burning of bodies at the site. 
The public objections do not appear to be based on religion 
per se, but rather on the issue of burning bodies near 
residential areas.  Khalsa suspected the locals wanted the 
land for themselves, and were thus trying to force the Sikhs 
and Hindus to stop using the site.  Local police have agreed 
to provide security for Sikh funerals, but often fail to do 
so.  The situation has not improved despite repeated appeals 
to government officials, and despite permission from the 
Afghan Environmental Protection Agency and the Mayor's office 
to perform their rites. 
 
¶5.  (U) The Kabul city government recently announced plans to 
seize 14 meters of land from the Sikhs to expand the road 
running past one of their two temples in Kabul.  If the 
government seized the full 14 meters, the Sikhs would have to 
pull the temple down, and were afraid that as a poor 
community, they would not be able to rebuild.  Though the 
Sikhs argued against the plan, the city was planning on going 
forward.  The Sikhs want to rebuild a temple in Nangarhar 
that was destroyed during the war with the Soviets.  Two 
alleged Hizb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) commanders have been 
blocking them.  The Sikhs have approached the Nangarhar 
governor's office repeatedly since 2007.  In March 2009, the 
governor issued an order allowing the Sikhs to rebuild their 
temple on the site.  In April 2009, he told the Sikhs the 
site could not be built on due to "technical problems".  He 
then promised to help resolve the problems, but nothing has 
been done. 
 
¶6.  (U) Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Anwar Jaktalak and 
2nd Vice-President Mohammad Karim Khalili had both signed an 
order to create a special Hindu and Sikh township in Day Sak 
District of Kabul Province.  The Sikhs and Hindus were 
refused authority to build by other parts of the government 
because they had a plan for a "new Kabul". 
 
¶7.  (U) Khalsa is the only Sikh or Hindu member of the 
Meshrano Jirga, with none in the Wolesi Jirga.  Khalsa would 
like a constitutional amendment to set a quota of 
representation for the Sikhs and Hindus in Parliament. In 
 
KABUL 00001591  002 OF 002 
 
 
Afghanistan, representation is based on the size of the 
community represented.  A given community must have at least 
10,000 members to be represented.  At 6,000 people, the 
Hindu/Sikh community would not generally warrant a full 
representative seat, much less two. 
 
Elections 
--------- 
 
¶8.  (U) The Sikh and Hindu communities are eager to 
participate in the upcoming elections, and most have obtained 
voter registration cards.  Sikhs and Hindus are not permitted 
to run for President under the constitution, which requires 
candidates to be Muslim.  No Sikhs or Hindus have registered 
to run in the provincial council elections either, since they 
are too scattered to be very powerful as a voting block. 
Khalsa would like the Sikhs and Hindus to have the authority 
to vote for candidates for reserved Sikh and Hindus 
parliamentary seats from anywhere in the country.  Khalsa 
said no candidates had approached the Sikhs and Hindus to 
seek their support for the upcoming elections. 
EIKENBERRY