As part of its first formal engagement with the Taliban’s government, India sent a delegation to Kabul about a fortnight before the attack on the gurdwara – a symbol of historic ties between India and Afghanistan.
Cowardly terrorists attacked the Gurudwara of Karte Parwan in Kabul.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned the attack and expressed prayers for the wellbeing of the devotees in a tweet.
I condemn the cowardly attack on Gurdwara Karte Parwan in the strongest possible terms,’ External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar wrote on Twitter. Since the news of the attack broke, we have been closely monitoring developments. Community welfare is our number one concern.’
There is speculation about the involvement of the Islamic State, but New Delhi is also trying to determine whether non-state actors or state actors based in Pakistan were involved in the attack on the gurdwara in the Afghan capital.
In a tacit statement on June 2, Pakistan expressed its concerns about ‘any spoiler’ in Afghanistan after a senior diplomat from the Government of India met the Foreign Minister of the Taliban government.
An Islamic State affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan Province, had attacked another gurdwara in Kabul in 2020, killing 20 Sikhs.
In August 2021, the Taliban took advantage of the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan to return to power in the conflict-ravaged country after 20 years. India evacuated some of the Afghan Sikhs from Afghanistan.
As a result of a swift military campaign by the Taliban, the government of Ashraf Ghani collapsed two days after New Delhi evacuated its envoy to Afghanistan, Rudrendra Tandon, and 175 other government officials in Kabul.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government was not recognized by India, but humanitarian aid was sent to the people of the country.
In recent years, New Delhi has developed backchannel contacts with the Taliban because it anticipated the militia would eventually return to the governance structure in Kabul after the US withdrawal, giving Pakistan a strategic advantage over India.