Kabul, Jan 8 Sikh and Hindu communities here no more have to agonise over finding a place to cremate their dead — a funeral ground vandalised by the Taliban has been restored to them.
The Afghan government has given back the possession of the cremation ground in downtown Kabul to the two communities after getting encroachments removed from there.
Kabul Singh Sabha president Sardar Ravinder Singh said that cremations there had been resumed, though police protection was always sought as a precaution.
He thanked President Hamid Karzai’s government for granting them full freedom to practise their religion without any hindrance and restoring the dignity of the community.
Hindus and Sikhs were not allowed by the Taliban rulers to cremate their dead in Kabul and the place was vandalised and encroached upon by fanatics.
The community had to take the bodies all the way to Ghazni for cremation. The difficulties faced in taking the dead to Ghazni forced them to make arrangements for cremation within the Karte Parwan Gurdwara, which was the only one to have escaped destruction during the civil war in the 1990s.
Sprawled over an acre of land, the cremation ground has now been fortified with a seven-foot-high boundary wall and the waiting halls have been renovated and benches placed for mourners.
A paid guard and his family stay in the adjoining outhouse to look after the upkeep of the place. The place has been thoroughly cleaned and gives the look of a garden with blooming flowers greeting the visitors.
The place is a sort of pilgrimage for Hindus and Sikhs because it is believed to house the ‘samadhis’ of two direct descendants of the founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak Dev.
The samadhis are of Baba Mangal Singh Bedi and Baba Jagtar Singh Bedi who were from the line of Guru Nanak’s younger son Baba Lakhmi Chand.
They are supposed to have lived in Afghanistan for long. The cremation ground also has the samadhi of a Hindu saint, Misher Jagdish.
The elder son of Guru Nanak, Baba Sri Chand, who did not marry and founded the Udasi sect of sadhus, also stayed and meditated in Kabul for long.
The holy site associated with him is in the Shor Bazar Gurdwara complex, which was damaged in the civil war. It still has his ‘dhoona and chimta’ (fireplace and tong). An Akhand Jyoti (eternal flame) burns there -for the last 400 years.
The population of Sikhs in Afghanistan, once estimated to be around 50,000, is believed to have dwindled to just over a thousand today because of the ethnic cleaning carried out by the Taliban.
Kabul Sikhs are still awaiting communication from the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee in Amritsar on the upkeep of gurdwaras in Kabul.
Sikhs, Hindus reclaim Kabul funeral ground
IANS
Sunday, January 08, 2006 21:07 IST
KABUL:Sikh and Hindu communities here no more have to agonise over finding a place to cremate their dead — a funeral ground vandalised by the Taliban has been restored to them. The Afghan government has given back the possession of the cremation ground in downtown Kabul to the two communities after getting encroachments removed from there.
Kabul Singh Sabha president Sardar Ravinder Singh said that cremations there had been resumed, though police protection was always sought as a precaution. He thanked President Hamid Karzai’s government for granting them full freedom to practise their religion without any hindrance and restoring the dignity of the community.
Hindus and Sikhs were not allowed by the Taliban rulers to cremate their dead in Kabul and the place was vandalised and encroached upon by fanatics. The difficulties faced in taking the dead to as far as Ghazni forced them to make arrangements for cremation within the Karte Parwan Gurdwara, which was the only one to have escaped destruction during the civil war in the 1990s.
The place is a pilgrimage for Hindus and Sikhs because it is believed to house the ‘samadhis’ of two direct descendants of the founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak Dev.
The ground also has the samadhi of a Hindu saint, Misher Jagdish. The population of Sikhs in Afghanistan, once around 50,000, is believed to have dwindled to just over a thousand today because of the ethnic cleaning carried out by the Taliban.