Gurdwara Pehli Patshahi (Kabul)

KABUL - Kabul is the capital of Afghanistan. Guru Nanak Sahib and Bhai Mardana visited this town, on their way from Baghdad in 1520-21. A Gurdwara had been built at Pan Chowk Jubba (Kabul) to preserve the memory of the visit of Guru Nanak Sahib. After 1947, the Afghan government demolished the Gurdwara in order to construct a road. A new Gurdwara was built at another site. In Kabul, there are other Gurdwara too. This was a major centre of the Sikh missionaries during the time of Guru Arjan Sahib, Guru Hargobind Sahib and Guru Har Rai Sahib. There were several thousand Sikhs in the city before the Russian invasion, in 1979. The war uprooted several Sikhs and ruined their business. After the departure of the Russian forces the new regime, under the Taliban, too, harassed the Sikhs; hence thousands more left Afghanistan and moved towards European countries. Now there are only a couple of thousand Sikhs in Afghanistan. Though a new regime took over in 2001-02, still not many Sikhs have returned to Kabul.