It’s more than a year since the Taliban are gone but over 70 historical Gurudwaras in Afghanistan even today tell the gory tales of atrocities by former rulers.

"These religious structures were totally destroyed by the Taliban, they are in shambles today. They took away everything – marbles, carpets, antiques, anything they could find," says Khajinder Singh Khurana, an Afghan refugee, who has put up a photo exhibition of these destroyed religious structures at a Gurudwara here.

The exhibition, comprising around 50 photographs, show both the good and bad times in Afghanistan. Some of the photographs, dating back to 60s and 70s, are from personal collection of various Afghan refugees and Khurana says it was very difficult task collecting these photos as refugees are scattered all over.

On the other hand are photographs showing all devastated structures… Everything in ruins. A photograph shows the entrance gate of Gurudwara Khalsa Ji in Kabul. Khurana says even the window panes, doors and marble on the floor were taken away by Taliban.

There were nine historical Gurudwaras inside Kabul located in a fort, which were totally destroyed. The photographs show the scattered bricks and woods lying all around inside the fort.

The only Gurudwara which escaped war is the Gurudwara Singh Sabha Karte Parvan and it was at this place that most of the Hindu and Sikh families were housed after 1992.

It was almost after a decade in December last year that Gurudwara Khalsa Ji in Kabul was opened and prayers held there, says Khurana. One of the photograph shows the few families there performing prayers in the Gurudwara (whatever remains of it).

Khurana, who was working in US Embassy in Kabul, recalls that there were around 50,000 Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan before the Taliban came. While most of them left in 1992, around a thousand remain there today.

"Life for all those who are living in Afghanistan hasn’t changed much after the Taliban went away. The people there are the same and they have learned to hate.

"So much illiteracy and unemployment is there. The foremost task is to help these people rebuild their lives again," says Khurana, who has formed the Afghan Hindu Sikh Welfare Society here.

The present government in Afghanistan has promised to rebuild the religious structures but nothing has started as such. "We have also approached the Indian government to send a delegation there to study the state of our religious structures," says Khurana.

Gurdwara Baba Nanak, Baghdad Iraq

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT GURU NANAKS VISIT TO BAGHDAD, IRAQ

India’s Sikh community wants to undertake the repair of a historic Gurdwara in Baghdad that was damaged in the US-led war on Iraq.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC), which controls Sikh shrines in India, has written to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to allow its delegation to visit Baghdad and assess the damage to the shrine.

The group said it wanted to do the job in keeping with the Sikh tradition of voluntary service.

Two shells from an American tank narrowly missed this ancient Gurdwara that commemorated Guru Nanak’s visit in 1520, but their impact damaged the structure somewhat.

"The force of the two blasts has shattered the windows overlooking a courtyard dedicated to a famous Shia Muslim, Sheikh Bahlol," SGPC president Kirpal Singh Badungar told IANS.

He said the exact damage could be known only after a visit to the site.

This comes alongside a similar offer to repair the shrine from Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, at the behest of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Singh has written to U.S. Ambassador Robert D. Blackwill stating his government would like to take up the job.

In his communiqué to Blackwill, the chief minister proposed sending a team from the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) to assess the damage and thereafter sending workmen to repair it as per Sikh traditions.

Guru Nanak had visited Baghdad on his way back from Mecca and Medina.

He stayed outside the city, about two km north of what is now the Baghdad West railway station, and held discourses with the keepers of the mausoleum of Fakir Bahlol.

After the guru left, the locals raised a memorial in the form of a platform at the place where he had sat. Gradually, a room was constructed over the platform. Sikh soldiers who went to Iraq during World War I built a Gurdwara there.

Since it is located within a graveyard, visitors were banned from staying overnight, cooking meals or organizing "langars" or serving community meals.

Immigrant Sikhs had frequented the Gurdwara until the first Gulf War of 1991 forced thousands of Sikhs to leave Iraq.