The refusal by the Taliban to negotiate with NATO because they believe they are “winning the war” (as John Simpson put it) may be transparent propaganda to a Western audience. But many Afghan Sikhs don’t only believe it – they actually want a Taliban victory. Why?

Well, a Sikh community thrived in Afghanistan from the seventh Century onwards only to be marginalised by the Soviet-backed government. The Sikhs re-emerged briefly after the fall of that government and prospered before the onset of the civil war in the early 1990s. At that time there were more than 100,000 Sikhs in the country.

Only a few thousand now remain after many fled to India during the civil war in the 1990s to escape persecution, but for those who did manage to reach India they have never been embraced by the country and their status remains as foreigners who need visas to remain in the country.

Ironically it was the Taliban victory that gave many the opportunity to return, and for a short time many did. Under the Taliban, Sikhs were openly allowed to practise their religion and the Sikhs’ proclivity for long beards meant they were left alone by the razor-wielding religious police.

Under the present, US-backed regime the constitution supposedly guarantees greater religious freedoms, but the reality is far different. Rather like the Afghan Hindu community, claims for usurped properties stolen during the civil war remain moribund, as a Muslim-dominated parliament appears to have different priorities.

India, too, seems indifferent to the plight of Afghan Sikhs and treats them no differently to any other foreigner, a strange attitude while India vies for influence in Afghanistan. And India’s Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, is, of course, a Sikh himself. I recently visited the utterly beguiling Golden Temple in Amritsar, the home of the Sikh religion, 16 years after my first visit. It is easy to see why Afghan Sikhs would want to stay in Punjab, and India should offer them the opportunity to do so.

But in a world where 97 per cent of its population lives in the country it was born in, there appears to be no place like home, and Afghan Sikhs seem to be no different… It is an indictment of current NATO policy that Afghan Sikhs would prefer a Taliban government to the present situation where they are sidelined by the Muslim majority.

India, with its growing influence in Afghanistan should take a stand. Either it should put some pressure on the present Afghan government, or offer residential status to immigrant Sikhs from Afghanistan. For the Sikhs it is either that or a new (and probably just as charming) Taliban government.

Tags: John Simpson, Sikhs, Taliban