KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN, February 28, 2002: Kandahar’s Hindu community has dwindled from 500 families to just five. But now, with the city at peace and the Taliban of Mullah Mohammad Omar gone, Hindus say their plight has eased. “Now we are very happy,” said 43 year-old Roop Chand Batija, head of Kandahar’s Hindu and Sikh communities. “We hope that some of our relatives will come back. It is safe for them now.” Kandahar has been a thriving commercial center for centuries. It is set in an oasis straddling ancient trade routes from South Asia to the Middle East and Europe, and once had a thriving community of Hindu and Sikh merchants and traders. Most fled in the years before the Taliban took power. Those who stayed had to endure the Taliban, who treated non-Muslims with deep suspicion and often contempt. “We had to keep ourselves to ourselves,” Batija said. “The Taliban didn’t allow us to celebrate festivals in public, or to play music. We were told to wear a piece of yellow cloth, so people would know we weren’t Muslims.” The struggle now for the Hindus and Sikhs is simply to keep their tiny communities alive. Hindus, pray daily in their temple, which they say was built when modern Kandahar was founded in the 18th century. “Most of us are old people,” Batija said. “But now things are better, we hope the young will come back.”
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