Seven attackers tried to enter the temple in the early hours of Saturday and hurled grenades at the security guards standing at the entrance. The attackers also detonated a car bomb in the area but no casualties were reported from the blast.
Zadran said all seven gunmen were killed after a standoff that lasted several hours inside the temple complex. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
According to state news agency Bakhtar, a member of the security forces and a Sikh worshiper were killed in the attack.
Temple official Gornam Singh told Reuters that 30 people were inside the temple at the time of the attack. “We don’t know how many of them are alive or how many are dead,” he said, adding that temple officials didn’t know what to do because the Taliban were not letting them in.
Sikhs are a small religious minority in Afghanistan, with very few remaining since the Taliban takeover last year.
Religious minority groups like Sikhs have been the target of violence in the country. In 2020, 25 people were killed in an attack on another Sikh temple in Kabul, claimed by ISIS.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) condemned the attack, writing in a tweet that “attacks on civilians must stop immediately. UNAMA calls for the protection of all minorities in Afghanistan, including Sikhs, Hazaras and Sufis.”
The EU ambassador to Afghanistan said the attack was terrifying and that “religious (and ethnic) pluralism needs to be protected in full force.”
India’s foreign ministry said they were “deeply concerned by reports of an attack on a holy gurudwara in that city from Kabul.”