Gunmen Attack Afghan Sikh Temple, At Least 1 Killed

A grenade attack on a Sikh temple in the Afghan capital, Kabul, has killed one person and wounded at least seven others, officials and witnesses said. The attack occurred during Friday prayers at the Guru Nanak Niwas gurdwara (temple) in the Wazir Akbar Khan area of the city. The assailants detonated a remote-controlled bomb and also used grenades as they stormed the building, said police spokesman Basir Mujahid. The province of Helmand is home to one of the largest Sikh communities in Afghanistan. At least two attackers were killed, while another was wounded and arrested, according to a police intelligence source who spoke on condition of anonymity."The security forces have blocked all roads leading to Sikhs temples," Takor said in a statement. Meanwhile, a Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack but gave no details about its masterminds or perpetrators."Sikh militants are our prisoners in Guantanamo [Bay] Camp," Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location."We are training them at camps run by our comrades."The Taliban often exaggerate their claims.

 The Sikh community in Kabul was quick to condemn the attack. “It’s a lie that every person who is not Muslim is a terrorist,” Deputy Chief Executive of the Council of Sikh Gurdwaras Zahid Khwaja said in an interview on Tolo News. “We should support each other against all kinds of bad things. We need to think about the future and not about the past,” he added.