New Delhi: A Canadian media report that the country’s former defence minister, Harjit Sajjan, put the Afghan Sikh community on a priority evacuation list ahead of other Canadian nationals and Afghans linked to Canada after the fall of Kabul have evoked interest on Raisina Hill. The reason is that explains some of the unexpected last-minute hurdles that the Indian evacuation mission faced in August 2021, exposing the Hindu and Sikh minorities to peril at the Kabul airport, according to people aware of the matter.
It was ostensibly due to the unanticipated instructions of the Canadian Sikh minister, whose father was said to be on board of the World Sikh Organisation, that the Indian evacuation flight was delayed from Kabul airport, where chaos was unfolding after the fall of the Afghan capital to the Taliban on August 15, 2021, the people added. The report in Canada’s Globe & Mail last week said that Sajjan specifically relayed information about the immediate evacuation of Afghan Sikhs who were otherwise not on the Canadian military radar. To be sure, Sajjan, who is currently the minister of emergency preparedness in the Justin Trudeau cabinet, has denied the allegations.
