India Is Evacuating Afghan Sikhs, Hindus But Some Of Them Want To Go To US, Canada Instead

Ever since India announced its plan to evacuate its citizens from Afghanistan, following the Taliban takeover of the country, New Delhi had also made it clear that members of religious minority communities including Hindus and Sikhs will also be repatriated.

And in the past few days, over a hundred Afghan Sikhs and Hindus including some prominent politicians from the community have been brought to India under the mission codenamed Operation Devi Shakti.

AP

There are more than 200 Afghan Hindus and Sikhs who have taken shelter at Gurdwara Karte Parwan in Kabul and waiting for evacuation.

But with the Taliban's deadline for foreign evacuations fast approaching, there is a new challenge.

Don't want to come to India

Some of them reportedly do not want to come to India but are eying to migrate to US or Canada.

AP

According to Puneet Singh Chandhok, the president of the Indian World Forum, who has been coordinating with the Indian government, the evacuation mission, and the Afghan citizens, they were not only creating obstacles in the evacuation process but also delaying the evacuation of others.

"India is facilitating these people at the highest level, yet they have missed flights twice in order to travel to the US or Canada," he said.

Even some of the Sikh leaders who are currently in Afghanistan had hinted that they preferred to go to the US or Canada than coming to India.

Living under the fear of #Taliban, the Sikhs/Hindus of #Kabul, have taken shelter n Gurudwara Karte Parvan have made an emotional appeal to the #Sikh bodies to evacuate them from Afghanistan before it is too late. These Sikh/Hindu families have preferred migrating to US & Canada pic.twitter.com/afzQAIJF5P

¡ª Ravinder Singh Robin ?????? ???? ??????????? ???? (@rsrobin1) August 17, 2021

Last week, the Canadian government had announced that it will permanently re-settle 20,000 "vulnerable" Afghans, including Sikhs and Hindus.

AP

The decision was taken jointly by Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marco E L Mendicino, Minister of National Defence Harjit S Sajjan, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Marc Garneau.