Al-Jazeera correspondent in the Afghan capital (Kabul) quoted a security source as saying that 4 suicide bombers were killed in an exchange of fire today, Saturday, with Afghan forces, at a Sikh temple in Kabul. He said that the attack resulted in 8 wounded, and no party claimed responsibility for it.
The Afghan Ministry of Interior said that the suicide attack on the temple located in the Barti Karawan neighborhood in the center of the capital was carried out by a car bomb and hand grenades, and a spokesman for the ministry added - in press statements - that the attack resulted in the killing of a member of the security forces and a member of the Sikh sect, in addition to wounding 8. other people.
According to the same spokesman, two members of the Sikh sect were injured in the explosion of a grenade thrown by the attackers, and added that after a few minutes, a car bomb exploded near the temple, causing no casualties.
This morning, a Hindu temple was targeted in the capital, Kabul, in the "Karteh Parwan" area, where the Hindu minority resides.
Afghan channels say that there were three consecutive strong explosions in the same area.
pic.twitter.com/v2VmsarnVw
— Ahmad Sayed Ahmad Sayed (@A_sayed7) June 18, 2022
"There were about 30 people inside the temple, we don't know how many of them are alive or how many were killed; the Taliban are not letting us in and we don't know what to do," Gurnam Singh, an official at the Sikh temple, told Reuters.
Sequence of events
Al-Jazeera correspondent in Kabul, Ahmed Val Waliddin, said that a statement by the Afghan police indicated that suicide bombers infiltrated a Sikh temple at six in the morning local time, and were able to kill two of its guards. Then the Afghan forces came to the place and targeted the attackers and killed them all after they tried to take hostages inside the temple.
Eyewitnesses said that the attack took place during a ritual inside the Sikh temple. The authorities closed all the streets leading to the temple before opening the place to traffic. An Afghan TV channel broadcast footage showing thick plumes of smoke rising from the area of the attack.
Commenting on the incident, the Indian Foreign Ministry expressed concern about the attack on the Gurudwara temple, and said it was closely monitoring the situation pending clarification of details.
This is the first time that a Sikh temple has been attacked in Afghanistan since the Taliban movement came to power in the summer of 2021, and before that, 25 were killed in an ISIS attack on a Sikh temple in 2020.
The Sikhs are a small religious minority in Afghanistan, and this sect numbered about 300 people before the Taliban came to power.