ਉੱਜੜਕੇ India ਆਏ Afghan Sikhs ਦੀ ਦੁੱਖਭਰੀ ਦਾਸਤਾਨ, ਨਾ ਮਿਲੀ Citizenship ਨਾ ਪੱਕਾ ਰੁਜ਼ਗਾਰ

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No job, social security: 350 Afghan Sikhs in Delhi who fled Taliban rule await visas to Canada

Source: ThePrint – PIA KRISHNANKUTTY

New Delhi: 51-year-old Gurpreet Sahni (name changed) arrived in Delhi last August. He was part of a batch of 30 Afghan Sikhs who were evacuated two months following a terrorist attack on one of Kabul’s largest gurdwaras that killed two. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had then written to the community, condemning the attack and paving the way for their evacuation to India.

However, after six months and an expired e-visa, Sahni is prepared to return to Afghanistan.

“If I don’t get a Canadian visa within the next few months, I’ll go back to Kabul and find a job there. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) process also does not seem like an option. There’s no point waiting here,” he told ThePrint, sipping tea and looking wistfully out the window of his 3-BHK apartment in Tilak Nagar. 

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, offers a pathway of citizenship for persecuted religious minorities — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians — from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. However, it only applies to those who arrived in India before 31 December 2014. Therefore, Afghan Sikhs fleeing the recent Taliban takeover haven’t been able to pursue Indian citizenship under this law. 

Sahini explained that he was finding it increasingly difficult to support his six children, wife and sister-in-law, especially after all their e-visas expired in December 2022. He is one of about 350 Afghan Sikhs in India who are waiting for visas to Canada.

According to Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney, an estimated 120 Afghan Sikhs, who took refuge in India, are now in Canada. About 17 have gone to the US.

Sahney, who is helping the refugees in India, said those who reached Canada are part of a programme under which the Canadian government has offered to cover house rent and provide monthly stipends of Rs 1.2 lakh (Can$ 2,000) to adults of the household for one year.

Sahney has been helping the refugees in India alongside the heads of two gurdwaras in Delhi. Chabol Singh, 57, an Afghan Sikh living in India for over two decades, is the main coordinator for the refugees.

Chabol Singh, 57, an Afghan Sikh living in Delhi for over two decades, is coordinating the journey of refugees to Canada | ThePrint

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India to grant citizenship to Pak, B’desh, Afghan minorities under 1955 Act

Source: Business Standard (Press Trust of India)

The Centre on Monday decided to grant Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan and currently living in two districts of Gujarat under the Citizenship Act, 1955.

The move to grant citizenship under the Citizenship Act, 1955 and not the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) bears significance.

The CAA also provides for granting Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians coming from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, but as the rules under the Act have not been framed by the government yet, no one so far could be granted citizenship under it.

According to a Union home ministry notification, those Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians residing in the districts of Anand and Mehsana in Gujarat will be allowed registration as a citizen of India under section 5 or will be granted certificate of naturalisation under section 6 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and in accordance with the provisions of the Citizenship Rules, 2009.

Such people living in the two districts of Gujarat have to submit their applications online which will then be verified by the collector at the district level. The application and reports thereon shall be simultaneously made accessible online to the central government, the notification read.

The collector may make such inquiry as he considers necessary for ascertaining the suitability of the applicant and for that purpose forwards the application online to such agencies for verification and comments as may be required for completing such an inquiry, it said.

After completing the entire process, the collector, being satisfied with the suitability of the applicant, grants him or her the citizenship of India by registration or naturalisation and issues a certificate of registration or naturalisation, as the case may be, the notification said.

The Narendra Modi government wants to grant Indian nationality to persecuted non-Muslim migrants — Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians — from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who had come to India till December 31, 2014.

There were massive protests in some parts of the country after the CAA was passed by Parliament in December 2019 and the subsequent presidential nod. Over a hundred people lost their lives during the protests.

However, the CAA has not been implemented so far as rules under it are yet to be framed.

According to the Manual on Parliamentary Work, the rules for any legislation should have been framed within six months of presidential assent or seek extension from the Committees on Subordinate Legislation in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

In January 2020, the home ministry notified that the Act would come into force from January 10, 2020, but it later requested the parliamentary committees in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha to give it some more time to implement rules as the country was going through its worst ever health crisis due to the Covid pandemic.

Last fortnight, the Union home ministry had been granted yet another extension by the Parliamentary Committees on Subordinate Legislation in the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha to frame the rules of the CAA.

While the permission has been granted from the Rajya Sabha till December 31, 2022, the Lok Sabha has granted time till January 9, 2023.

This was the seventh extension given to the home ministry to frame the rules under the CAA.

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One Year On, Afghanistan’s Sikh Refugees Still Trying To Find A New Home In India

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55 more Afghan Sikhs, Hindus land in New Delhi

Source: Pajhwok Afghan News

KABUL (Pajhwok): A special flight carrying 55 Sikh and Hindu refugees from Afghanistan has landed in New Delhi, Indian media reported on Monday.

The latest batch of minority members leaving Afghanistan late on Sunday included 38 adults and 17 children, the Press Trust of India said.

The Amritsar-based Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee arranged the special flight that landed in the Indian capital Sunday evening.

Indian lawmaker Vikramjit Singh Sahney said they had been in contact with the Ministry of External Affairs for the evacuation of the Sikhs and Hindus stranded in Afghanistan.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan facilitated the repatriation of the minority members, who would be given all possible facilities, the MP said.

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55 Sikh, Hindu refugees from Afghanistan reach Delhi

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Amritsar nursing college offer free courses for Afghan Sikh and Hindu students

Source: The Times of India

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A year after CAA, refugees in India still waiting for citizenship

Source: Al-Jazeera

Hindu and Sikh refugees in India still wait for nationality a year after a controversial citizenship law was passed.

By Srishti Jaswal

Amritsar, India – Surbeer Singh was just three years old when his family fled Nangarhar province in Afghanistan to escape religious persecution and war in the 1980s. They have since lived in the northern city of Amritsar, waiting to be granted Indian citizenship.

Last December, India’s Hindu nationalist government amended the country’s citizenship law to expedite nationality for persecuted immigrants – except Muslims – from three neighbouring countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

But exactly a year since the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed by the country’s parliament, no immigrant has been granted citizenship under the CAA.

A Sikh refugee, Surbeer, 33, is among some 31,313 eligible refugees in India, most of them from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who have been waiting for years to get Indian citizenship.

He is worried about his status as his visa expired in July. “I am living on borrowed time on a borrowed land,” Surbeer said.

“They ask me to return to the place I fled [from]. How can I go back now? For me, India is my home,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that the Afghan embassy asked him to return to Kabul to obtain his visa.

“We faced religious persecution in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We face identity discrimination in India,” said Surbeer.

In Amritsar, a community of refugee families lives together in an area just five kilometres from the Golden Temple, one of the holiest shrines in the Sikh religion.

Face discrimination

Surbeer, who works as a spare parts dealer, is one of the lucky few refugees to now own a house. “When we came to India, we struggled in a small rented room in Krishna Nagar of Amritsar. Over the years, I worked hard and eventually I bought a flat in Golden Avenue of Amritsar with help of my relatives. It is registered on my wife’s name as she is an Indian citizen.

“We are doing fine with God’s grace. We eat well, sleep well and work well. The only issue is of visa and identity,” said Surbeer, who lives with his family of five.

“In Amritsar, people at times call us Afghani and Pakistani. At times, the schools ask for legal documents, our kids are afraid of showing their Afghani and Pakistani passports. People don’t prefer marrying our sons. They don’t do business with us,” he said.

Hundreds of such families have settled in the border districts of the Indian states of Punjab and Rajasthan as well as the capital, New Delhi.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the CAA aimed to help such refugees who have lived in India for years without any legal status.

But the controversial law, which sparked anti-Muslim riots in New Delhi, could not be availed by refugees as the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) failed to draft guidelines to operationalise it.

Al Jazeera mailed a detailed questionnaire to a MHA spokesperson but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Hindu refugees return to Pakistan

Last month, more than 200 Hindu and Sikh refugees returned to Pakistan in financial hardship as the law was not in operation, drawing critics to question the government’s sincerity towards refugees.

India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, and it does not have a national policy on refugees, even though it is home to more than 200,000 refugees from Tibet, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are granted long-term visas (LTV) initially for five years and then renewed every two years.

“LTV is no less than a house arrest. We are not allowed to leave the station without permission,” said Saran Singh.

As per their current visa norms, such migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan are allowed to engage only in private employment. Children of such visa holders mostly drop out after schools as they are not allowed to move out of the city to pursue higher education.

“However the problem arises when our kids have to pursue higher education. At times technical education is not available in Amritsar and our kids are not allowed to leave the station without permission under the LTT visa norms,” said Saran Singh.

“Even if I have to go beyond the Golden Gate of Amritsar (borders of Amritsar city) for a check-up in hospital, I have to seek prior permission which may take days,” the 53-year-old said, referring to the curbs on his movement. Saran Singh arrived from Peshawar in Pakistan in 1999 along with his family of seven.

Harbhajan Singh, 42, who lives in Amritsar, says that he was held by the police for questioning as his brother visited the Golden Temple from Delhi without prior permission from police. Harbhajan and his brother, Harbans Singh, both fled Peshawar in 2012 but eventually were granted visas for Amritsar and Delhi respectively.

Shiv Kumar, a Hindu, left Pakistan’s Peshawar in 2005 along with his family seeking refuge in India.

“For different family members, the visa renewal date is different. It is such a complicated process that it takes the complete engagement of at least one family member who is given the responsibility of paperwork for all of us,” the 29-year-old told Al Jazeera. He is the sole earner in his family of six, including his elderly parents.

Protests against CAA

Many refugees have lived in India all of their lives but still have not been granted citizenship.

Surbeer from Afghanistan says his brother Arwinder Singh, who was born in India in 1994, is still not an Indian citizen.

“He wanted to study further, but the visa restricts him from leaving Amritsar. He dropped out of his education after class 12.”

But for many Muslim immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, getting Indian citizenship is impossible, as the new law bars Muslims from seeking citizenship.

Shabnam Khan (name changed) was married in 1996 to an Indian Muslim man in Fazilka village of the border state of Punjab.

“I am now a mother of two sons. I was hopeful that I will be accepted as an Indian, but 24 years have passed, I am still a Pakistani.” Khan is still living in India on a LTV. Now 40, she still faces the same issues as others while renewing her visa. “The COVID-19 lockdown made it even more difficult. In a year we have to visit Delhi at least twice or thrice for documentation. Every time they raise some objections which are only cleared if we agree to pay a bribe.”

The CAA was opposed by Muslims and liberal Indians, who said that by making faith a basis for citizenship, the law ran against the spirit of India’s secular constitution.

Many Muslims feared that the CAA, coupled with the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which aims to identify undocumented immigrants, could be used to disenfranchise them.

Xenophobic and anti-Muslim rhetoric pushed by leaders of the governing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has not eased their fears. Home Minister Amit Shah, considered Modi’s right-hand man, described Bangladeshi immigrants as “termites” and “infiltrators” and a threat to national security.

The BJP has also threatened to throw out Rohingya refugees seeking shelter in India.

Two BJP spokesmen Al Jazeera spoke to declined to comment on why the CAA has not been implemented so far, but Shaheen Kausar, a social activist closely associated with anti-CAA protests said the intention of the government was dishonest from the beginning.

“All these are tactics to divert the attention from the issues which might harm their interests. Such laws are brought so that they can take away voices of resistance and dissent. If the government cared so much for the refugees why isn’t the law implemented so far?” Kausar asked.

Manjinder Singh Sirsa, a politician with the Shiromani Akali Dal party in Punjab, said he supported the government when it brought in the new citizenship law. “It was supposed to provide relief to those who were waiting for years.

“I fail to understand what was the government’s purpose when they brought this law? Only the community can judge if the law was communal or a political stunt but those who were hopeful of help, they have been let down.”

Surbeer Singh showing a refugee card issued to him by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (L) and a photograph of his children who are Indian Citizens (R) [Srishti Jaswal/Al Jazeera]

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Sikh Afghan refugee shot dead

Source: The Hindu

All angles, including property deals are being looked into for leads: police

A 70-year-old pradhan of a gurdwara was shot dead by two bike-borne men outside his house in west Delhi’s Vikaspuri. No arrests have been made in the case yet, he police said on Tuesday. 

DCP (West) Deepak Purohit said that the victim has been identified as Attam Singh, a refugee from Afghanistan, who had come to India 28 years ago and settled here. 

According to the police, a PCR call was received around 5.30 p.m. on Monday about a firing incident. When the police reached the spot, they were informed that the injured had taken to a hospital where he was declared dead with bullet injuries on his head. 

Sale of property

The probe revealed that he had come from Afghanistan 28 years ago and settled here. He was one of the senior members managing the Anandpur Dham Gurudwara in Karala and was also dealing in sale purchase of property near the gurdwara. “We are looking into some recent deals he was involved in,” Mr Purohit said.

CCTV footage of the incident shows two men shooting at Singh. The victim was shot dead when he was stepping out of his car in front of his house. The accused flee the spot after shooting him. 

The police said that several persons, including family members and gurdwara staffers are being questioned to ascertain the identity of the accused and the motive behind the murder. All angles, including property deals are being looked into for any leads, the police said.

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EMINENT AFGHAN SIKH – Late Khajinder Singh Khurana (1953-2020) [Obit]

Source: SikhNet

by Inderjeet Singh

he President of Afghan Hindu & Sikh Welfare Society, Khajinder Singh Khuranapassed away last month in Delhi. He was forefront in arranging accommodation, securing funding and other facilities for the recent Afghan Sikh refugees. I am sharing his short biography which I have translated from the upcoming book in Punjabi on Afghan Hindus and Sikhs by Dr Joginder Singh Tej Khurana, former member of the Afghan Great Assembly (Loya Jirga) 1990 -92.

Sardar Khajinder Singh was born in 1953 in the house of Bhai Mohar Singh Khurana and Mata Parkash Kaur in Shor Bazar, the old part of the city of Kabul. He completed his primary education at Khalsa Religious School, Kabul and was later enrolled in ‘Nadria Lacey’ for higher secondary education. Following this he joined the ‘British Council Kabul School’ to learn English and gained a certification which assisted him to serve in the UNESCO Kabul Office.

Later he joined his family business, where he proved to be a very successful in the import/export venture between Kabul & Dubai along with his brother Amarjit Singh, Manmohan Singh & Balbir Singh. He was part of the managing committee of Guru Nanak Religious School, Karte Parwan Kabul from 1975-80.

Sardar Jai Singh Fani (1941-77) the only independently elected Sikh Parliamentarian from Afghanistan was the younger brother of his Bhai Mohar Singh. The change in regime in December 1979 led the family to migrate to Delhi in 1980. He married Bibi Rajinder Kaur on January 2, 1983 at Gurdwara Greater Kailash, Delhi. He was later blessed with two sons and a daughter. Due to the unfavourable security conditions in Afghanistan, he left Afghanistan permanently in 1988.

Dr Khurana (not related) met Khajinder Singh in 1992 and found leadership qualities in him. Both joined the newly created Afghan Hindu-Sikh Welfare Society, Delhi and started community service together under the guidance of late Shri Ganga Ram (former Afghan Parliamentarian). In the year 2000, he was made the First Joint Secretary of the organisation, which he served very well till 2003. In May 2001, his book on history of Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan in Punjabi, Kabul di Sangat tee Afghanistan da Sankhep Ithas was released.

In early 2017 I contacted him in Delhi and he kindly sent a copy of the book to me in UK. I have duly referenced his work in my book, Afghan Hindus & Sikhs History of a Thousand Years.

Following the death of Shri Ganga Ram in 2003, Khajinder Singh became the President of Afghan Hindu-Sikh Welfare Society. He led the charity ably but his services for past five years are noteworthy. The killing of innocent Afghan Sikhs on 1st July 2018 and 25th March 2020 in Jalalabad and Kabul shook the community. He collaborated with the Khalsa Diwan Welfare Society for temporary settlement of Afghan Hindus and Sikhs in India, as well as the efforts of in acquiring Indian citizenship for them. Charity Khalsa Diwan Afghanistan UK and Central Night Germany Committee’s assisted in evacuating about 450 Afghan Sikhs from Kabul to Delhi in August this year.

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed in December 2019 offers citizenship to non-Muslims fleeing religious persecution from three nearby countries. Initially as a bill it was only limited to Pakistan and Bangladesh only. Khajinder Singh rose to the occasion and met Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee members, Akali Dal and Central Government Minsters to impress them to include Afghanistan citizens in the bill.

He understood the importance to lobby about the issue and build an opinion among the stakeholders.

On 13th September due to cardiac arrest he left this mortal world for the heavenly abode. The Afghan Sikh and Hindu community will remember his selfless services till their last breath. On a personal level I lost an elder friend whom helped me in my research, and it will be very difficult to fill his void in my life.

Wahe Guru Ji Apne Charna Vich Niwas Bakshan!

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