A CHARITY which lost one of its members in a religiously motivated attack has warned of the growing persecution faced by Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan.

Khalsa Diwan Afghanistan (KDA), based beside Hounslow’s Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, has been fighting for years to highlight the daily terror experienced by minorities in the Middle Eastern nation.

Afghanistan is home to an estimated 10-15,000 Sikhs and Hindus, out of a total population of about 30 million, the vast majority of whom are Muslims.

KDA, many of whose members themselves fled the country, claims many non-Muslims are denied the right to a proper education and face often deadly attacks, even when burying their loved ones.

In July this year, one of its members, 45-year-old Pritpal Singh Pal, was among 24 people killed in a suicide bomb attack at a wedding reception in the northern province of Samangan.

Another member, Gulbir Singh Khurana, who now lives in Hounslow, was hit in the leg during a deadly attack at a Sikh temple in Jalalabad in 1988. He still has difficulty walking.

KDA chairman Bhajan Singh Kapoor, who himself emigrated from Kabul with his two sons in 2000, said the persecution faced by minorities in his native country was worse than ever.

“We’re getting a lot of reports from Afghanistan about the problems faced by minorities living there,” he told the Chronicle. Most Sikhs live within the constrained compound of our Gurudwaras for fear of religious persecution.

“Our young children are unable to go to state-run educational institutions as they are harassed, bullied and beaten up for not embracing Islam. They feel stranded in their own country and have nowhere to escape, to be able to freely practice their faith.

“The Taliban already controls 60 to 70 per cent of the country and we’re worried things will get even worse when British and American troops leave in 2014.”

Mr Kapoor was among members of the charity that joined Feltham & Heston MP Seema Malhotra on September 27 to raise their concerns with Foreign Office representatives at parliament.

They called on the British government to put pressure on Afghan leaders to address the situation.

They also urged ministers to grant those who had fled persecution asylum in the UK.