Referred to as Gandhara and Vahlika in ancient Hindu-Buddhist scriptures, Hinduism (Saivite) and Buddhism (Mahayana) were the dominant faiths of the ancestors of present day Pathans inhabiting the Eastern and Southern parts of Afghanistan, before the advent of Islam. Around 654 C.E., Arab forces started attacking the Hindu Kingdoms of Kabul and Zabul ruled by the Shahiya kings. The Pathans resisted for 2 centuries before they were overwhelmed and forcibly converted to Islam3. So great was the massacre of Hindus that the local mountain range was renamed as ‘Hindu Kush’ meaning ‘Hindu slaughter’4. With the fall of the communist regime in 1980’s and after demolition of the Babri Masjid in India on December 6, 1992, the 75000 Hindu minority, mainly resident in Kabul, Jalalabad and Kandhar, was targeted selectively and their religious sites were descecrated. They fled en-masse to cities like Delhi in India, where they are settled now. Several modern day Indian Hindu communities like the Sehgals are descendent of Afghan Hindus who fled Islamic persecution in Afghanistan several centuries ago. The Afghan Hindus have set up a website, to highlight their situation.