Attacked at home, Afghan Sikhs find community on Long Island
Kulwinder Singh Soni’s voice quavered as he recounted the day in March 2020 when an Islamic State gunman burst into a Sikh gurdwara’s prayer hall in Kabul,
Kulwinder Singh Soni’s voice quavered as he recounted the day in March 2020 when an Islamic State gunman burst into a Sikh gurdwara’s prayer hall in Kabul, hurling grenades and firing assault rifles. Among the 25 people killed were Soni’s father, sister-in-law and 4-year-old niece.
Police later warned the family not to attend their funerals because terrorists had planted land mines outside the temple. They were ultimately able to attend, but only after officers did a sweep and cleared them to enter the shrine.
“That’s when we decided we needed to leave Afghanistan,” Soni said. “There was absolutely no future for our family in that country.”
After a two-year struggle to make an exit, including nearly a year under restored rule of the fundamentalist Taliban group, Soni and 12 family members including his mother, siblings, nieces and nephews, arrived in the United States last month.
They are settling in Hicksville, on New York’s Long Island, a community that has come to be a growing refuge for not only Afghan Sikhs but also Hindus, both of them religious minorities that have increasingly suffered discrimination and persecution in their home country.
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