Gurdwara Karte Parwan (Kabul)

What it is: Gurdwara Karte Parwan stands in the Karte Parwan area of Kabul. In 2018 Awtar Singh Khalsa, president of its association, told the Los Angeles Times it was the last of eight gurdwaras that once worked in Kabul. In the civil war of the mid-1990s warlords took over Kabul's solidly built gurdwaras and shelled each other, destroying seven of them and a Sikh school that taught 1,000 students. Under the Taliban's earlier rule Sikhs had to wear yellow patches and fly yellow flags over their homes and shops. The same report puts the Sikh community at about 50,000 in the early 1990s and 372 families in 2018. In 2022 Al Jazeera, citing community members, said about 140 Hindus and Sikhs remained after the Taliban took power again in August 2021, and that many were living inside the gurdwara to be close to one another.

Leaders named: Awtar Singh Khalsa was association president in 2018. In June 2022 The Tribune named Gurnam Singh as president of the gurdwara.

Key moments

• March 2020: the Islamic State attacked another Kabul gurdwara and killed 25 people, which Al Jazeera says started a new exodus of Sikhs.
• 5 October 2021: ANI reported, on the word of Puneet Singh Chandhok of the Indian World Forum and of locals, that armed Taliban officials entered the gurdwara, broke its CCTV cameras and took people into custody. The report does not give the Taliban's reply, and we found no confirmation.
• 18 June 2022: a blast at the gate was followed by gunmen entering the gurdwara, at about 6 am according to The Tribune. Afghanistan's Interior Ministry said a vehicle packed with explosives was stopped before it reached its target, that a Sikh man and a Taliban soldier were killed, that seven people were hurt and that Taliban forces killed three attackers. Community leader Charan Singh Khalsa told Al Jazeera that about 30 people were inside, and that Savinder Singh Ghazneci, a devotee who lived at the gurdwara, was shot dead along with a guard at the gate. Al Jazeera adds that his family had already left for India.

Who did it: The Tribune says the attack was suspected to be the work of ISIS Khorasan. Al Jazeera notes that most attacks on Afghanistan's minorities have been claimed by that group. The reports we opened record no claim for this attack.

Where it stands: Al Jazeera's 2022 report quoted a Kabul Sikh saying this was the only working Sikh temple left in Kabul out of four. We found no later reliable count of worshippers or of working gurdwaras in Afghanistan.