Sikhs set example 4 getting along with the Taliban

[Harj Cohen]

Scott Baldauf Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

JALALABAD, AFGHANISTAN -- It's not just the variety of fabrics in his shop that distinguishes Gurmouk Singh from the other merchants in this bustling city of commerce. Most of all, it is Mr. Singh's distinctive beard and turban that mark him as a Sikh, a religious minority in an aggressively Muslim land.

But while the Taliban regime that controls some 95 percent of this war-torn country has in the past few months smashed Buddhist statues and cracked down on Shiite Muslims in central Afghanistan, Singh says he and his fellow Sikhs feel completely safe in the only home they have ever known.

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related:

Two kidnapped Sikhs rescued by local Taliban in NWFP: Report

Islamabad, Apr 27 Two Sikhs, who were abducted from a district in Pakistan's restive North West Frontier Province, have been rescued by the local Taliban and religious scholars, who decided to publicly hang their nine kidnappers tomorrow to "discourage crimes" in the region.
Attar Singh and Sehra Singh were kidnapped by a group of criminals from Dowaba in Hangu district. They were freed yesterday after the intervention of local Taliban, religious scholars and tribal elders, 'The News' daily reported.

Members of a tribal jirga or council of elders took the two Sikhs back to their homes.

Sources told the daily that the Tehrik-e- Taliban Pakistan and local council of clerics had taken nine kidnappers into their custody. One kidnapper was also killed by the Taliban.

A jirga of religious scholars and local Taliban held at Khadezai area of nearby Aurakzai Agency decided to publicly hang the kidnappers tomorrow to "discourage crimes in the area".

Maulvi Omar, the spokesman for the Tehrik-e- Taliban Pakistan, said the Sikhs were taken by their kidnappers from Dowaba in Hangu to Baghu in Aurakzai Agency. The Taliban then conducted an operation yesterday to release them, he said.

Omar said one of the kidnappers was killed during the operation while their leader, Ghani, was apprehended.

The kidnappers will be punished in accordance with Islamic injunctions and operations by the Taliban against anti-social elements will continue in the Aurakzai Agency, he said.
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