Afghanistan: Explosion Rocks Sikh Temple In Kabul

There are fears for the safety of dozens of worshippers in the Afghan capital of Kabul after a Sikh temple was hit in an explosion.

The blast occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning and it is unclear if there are casualties.

One local official at the scene, Gornam Singh, told Reuters news agency there had been up to 30 people inside the temple at the time of the blast. "We don't know how many of them are alive or how many dead," he said.

"The Taliban are not allowing us to go inside, we don't know what to do," Mr Singh added.

Local broadcaster Tolo aired footage showing heavy grey plumes of smoke rising from the area. 

The building is the last remaining Sikh temple in the capital, and community leaders recently estimated that just 140 Sikhs remain in predominantly Muslim Afghanistan, down from 100,000 in the 1970s.

The attack is the latest to hit the country since Taliban militants took control of Afghanistan last year:

In April, a bomb attack by the Sunni Muslim militant group Islamic State (IS) killed 31 people and injured 87 at a Shia Muslim mosque in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

In December, an IS attack on a military hospital in Kabul killed more than 20 people and injured 16.

















Source: BBC
Image Source: Pixabay