Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the level of threat to the Sikh community in Afghanistan.

​Security remains an ongoing challenge in Afghanistan. The Afghan National Defence and Security Forces are committed to tackling this threat. As part of NATO's Resolute Support Mission, the UK supports the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces in its efforts to improve security for all communities.

Ethnic and religious minorities in Afghanistan, including the Christian, Sikh and Hindu communities, continue to face challenges. We regularly raise human rights issues with the Government of Afghanistan, including the need to protect the rights of all ethnic and religious groups in line with the constitution. The UK condemns in the strongest possible terms the targeting of innocent people based on their beliefs. Last year, I publicly condemned the 1 July attack on a group of Sikhs and Hindus in Jalalabad as "a despicable attack on Afghanistan's historic Sikh and Hindu community".