Canadian outreach imperils Sikh evacuation from Afghanistan: Sun Foundation’s Sahney

‘A section of Sikhs in Kabul believe refugee status in Canada will provide them a better future’

An outreach from the Canadian government towards the Sikhs of Afghanistan has jeopardised India’s ongoing operation to evacuate stranded people, said a civil society leader who has been closely associated with the ongoing airlift operation. Vikramjit Singh Sahney, entrepreneur and chairman of Sun Foundation, who has been coordinating the evacuation process from Kabul, said the window for evacuation is fast shrinking and the Canadian attempt to take Sikhs out of Afghanistan has put the Indian initiative at risk. “At least 210 Sikhs remain in Kabul and they need to be evacuated as soon as possible because the Taliban has warned that this evacuation cannot continue forever. In this condition, a part of the group has moved out of the local gurudwara and gone into the refugee centre run by Canada, which is creating a lot of problems for smooth coordination of the difficult work,” said Mr. Sahney over phone from Dubai. He said that a section of the Sikhs in Kabul have come to believe that refugee status in Canada will provide them a better future and they have been demanding evacuation to Canada. He also said that India, despite best efforts, has not been able to fly as many flights as required in the difficult conditions at the Kabul airport, and that it urgently needs to increase number of flights to complete evacuation before the end of August.