{"id":22758,"date":"2026-02-13T22:56:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/?p=22758"},"modified":"2026-02-13T22:56:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T22:56:56","slug":"afghan-hindu-family-in-germany-await-visa-to-immerse-sons-ashes-in-ganga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2026\/02\/13\/afghan-hindu-family-in-germany-await-visa-to-immerse-sons-ashes-in-ganga\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan Hindu Family in Germany Await Visa to Immerse Son\u2019s Ashes in Ganga"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>GERMANY, December 25, 2026 (Indian Express): Naveen Kakkar and his wife Sheela fled Afghanistan nearly three decades ago as the first Taliban regime was ready to take control of Kabul. Later, their son, Nishant, a special child, was born in Germany in 1991. Three decades on, with the Taliban back in Kabul, the religious fundamentalist group seems to be controlling their fate again \u2014 the couple\u2019s visa applications to India to immerse Nishant\u2019s ashes in the Ganga are stuck since September \u201cdespite submitting all required documents\u201d, ostensibly due to stringent checks required after the Taliban regime\u2019s return in August 2021. Jaganth Gerdezi, president, Afghan Hindu Cultural Association, Germany, said at least a hundred visa applications of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus are pending, of which at least 20 are from families who want to go India for \u201c<em>asthi visarjan<\/em> (immersing ashes) in the Ganga\u201d. \u201cOff the record, we were told that there was security concern for people with Afghan passports\u2026no reason for visa denial has been given to us officially,\u201d Gerdezi said.<br><br>An Afghan Sikh community leader, requesting anonymity, said Afghan Sikhs and Hindus with Afghan passports living in countries such as Sweden, the UK and the UAE, the UK are also being denied visas to India since the regime change in Kabul. \u201cTheir valid visas were also declared invalid and fresh ones are not being issued despite emergencies such as deaths in family or medical treatment,\u201d he said. From completing death rituals to visiting families, pilgrimage to Haridwar and Golden Temple to getting treatment for health issues, Afghan Hindus and Sikhs in Germany have been visiting India without any hindrance for the last many decades but \u201cthings suddenly changed\u201d after the Taliban takeover of Kabul last year, they said. They said their visas are being rejected by India \u201cwithout specifying any reason\u201d, and despite Modi\u2019s promise to \u201chelp persecuted minorities from Pakistan and Afghanistan\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More at source.<br><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/cities\/chandigarh\/afghan-hindu-family-in-germany-await-visa-to-immerse-sons-ashes-in-ganga-8342773\/\">https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/cities\/chandigarh\/afghan-hindu-family-in-germany-await-visa-to-immerse-sons-ashes-in-ganga-8342773\/<\/a><br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>GERMANY, December 25, 2026 (Indian Express): Naveen Kakkar and his wife Sheela fled Afghanistan nearly three decades ago as the,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22758"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22765,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22758\/revisions\/22765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}