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An attack on a temple of the small Sikh community in Afghanistan has left a believer and a member of the Taliban forces dead.
Several other people were injured when a car packed with explosives exploded near the building, which housed about 30 people.
This is the last Sikh temple that still holds its doors open in the Afghan capital. Leaders of the community estimate that only 140 followers of the faith remain in predominantly Muslim Afghanistan, up from 100,000 in the 1970s.
Many Sikhs fled the country on the eve of the Taliban take control, according to community members and media reports. After taking power in August last year, amid the withdrawal of US-led international forces, the Taliban claimed to have secured Afghanistan.
But international officials and experts warn that there is a continuing danger of a resurgence of militancy. Although no one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack on the temple, the Islamic State in Khorasan province, a regional branch of ISIS, has recently stepped up attacks on mosques and minorities across the country.
The Sikh community, like other religious minorities, has been a permanent target of violence in Afghanistan. An attack carried out by the Islamic State on another temple in Kabul in 2020 killed 25 members.
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