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KABUL, AFGHANISTAN, January 20, 2002: Sikhs and Hindus worship and pray together at five ruined houses in the city of Kabul. In the early part of 1990, 50,000 Sikhs and Hindus lived in Afghanistan. Today less than 2,000 are in the country and according to this article, “In Kabul there are exactly 520 Sikhs and Hindus, in 40 Sikh and 10 Hindu families.” Even though the two religions are distinct, they have chosen to pray together partly because of few numbers and also because they speak the same language and have the same origins. Once prosperous merchants, bankers, moneylenders or currency exchangers, they were uprooted from their homes and occupations in late 1992, early 1993, when Muslims in the country retaliated because of the attack on the Babri Masjid mosque in northern India. The mujahedeen government of this period did little to stop the looting. When the Taliban came into power in 1996, the Hindu and Sikh community kept secretly praying. However they were further segregated when the Taliban tried to force them to wear a distinguishing yellow cloth. Some lost property under this regime, and they could not live in the same house as Muslims. With the downfall of the Taliban, the community is leery about the future as part of the mujahedeen government is now in power again. However in December of 2001, the government met with Sikhs and Hindus to assure them that they are part of Afghanistan. Those who fled the country over a decade ago are watching in hopes of returning someday.

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