Truth behind removing and re-installing Nishan Sahib in Afghanistan’s Gurdwara Thala Sahib

Rehman Chamkani, caretaker of the gurdwara, told Zee news that on August 6 night, a group of about two dozen Taliban members came to the village and asked him to reinstall the Nishan Sahib.

New Delhi: It was the concerted efforts of the microscopic Sikh and Hindu Nanakpanthi’s  (followers of Sikh’s first master Guru Nanak Dev) community of Afghanistan, Sikh diasporas and the Indian government that not only forced the Taliban to restore the ‘Nishan Sahib’ (Sikh religious flag) which they had forcibly removed from Gurdwara Thala Sahib situated in Babu Khel in Chamkani district of Paktia province of Afghanistan but also guaranteed the protection of gurdwara. It is said that the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, visited the place during one of his ‘Udasies’.  Sikhs and Hindus have had a long history of living in Afghanistan. It is pertinent to mention that there were many Hindu and Sikh Shrines in Afghanistan, exceeding a population of more than 2 lakh during the 1970s. But during the civil war in Afghanistan, many of the Sikhs and Hindu shrines were lost.