Indians in Afghanistan

[2] All Indians in Afghanistan have either returned or were evacuated during Operation Devi Shakti, after the 2021 Taliban offensive and the subsequent Fall of Kabul.

[3] The mahajanapada of Gandhara extended from the Kabul river to the Punjab, comprising Hindu and Buddhist dynasties, and lasted a thousand years till the 11th Century AD when it was overthrown by the Ghaznavids.

[6] By the nineteenth century a large Hindu community, comprising ethnic groups such as Lohanis and Shikarpuri Khatris, was widespread throughout the region and tribes and concerned primarily with commerce.

They eventually developed control of the banking throughout Central Asia ranging from "Astrakhan to Meshid to Calcutta" (vide Alexander Burnes).

[5] The Khilafat movement of 1920 saw a spontaneous migration of Indian Muslims to be free of perceived British bondage of Islam by emigrating to neighbouring Afghanistan.

Encouraged by their religious leaders, thousands of peoples sold their belongings and migrated to Afghanistan choking the Khyber Pass with their possessions on bullock cart, camel and cycles.

The hallmark project of the Indian aid effort is a majestic domed edifice costing $125 million for the Afghan Parliament which is likely to be completed at the end of 2011.

[19][20][21][22][16][8] Afghan President Hamid Karzai terming the attacks an "abominable act" by "the enemies of Afghanistan's friendship with India" said the Indian Embassy bombing in Kabul was the work of "Pakistani agents".

"[18] United States President George W. Bush confronted Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani with evidence and warned him that in the case of another such attack he would have to take "serious action".

[19] In 2011, Mike Mullen, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated the Haqqani network was in many ways "a strategic arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency".

Saeed Ansari, the spokesman for Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, said the militants who attacked the Indian guesthouse were speaking Urdu, Pakistan's official language.

[20] "We are very close to the exact proof and evidence that the attack on the Indian guesthouse ... was carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba network, who are dependent on the Pakistan military.