Leave, convert or perish: The fate of Afghanistan’s minorities

President Biden’s decision to ‘end the war in Afghanistan’ means the complete withdrawal of 3,500 US troops by the 20th anniversary of 9/11. However, what may be domestically popular — particularly among Trump voters — will soon have consequences for the Afghans left unguarded by foreign troops. The Taleban and other jihadist militias are already making significant territorial gains while nuclear Pakistan will be strengthened by the vacuum left by the US military. But it is Afghanistan’s non-Muslims who will really suffer.

Extinction is a word normally associated with dinosaurs — but it’s no exaggeration to say some minority religions (including my own) will now face that fate at the hands of Isis, Al-Qaeda, and a resurgent Taleban. The receding hum of American helicopters will signal the unleashing of an intifada against the infidel.

In 2018, a delegation of at least 19 Hindus and Sikhs were killed by a suicide bomber in Jalalabad on their way to meet the Afghan president.