As many as 140 Afghans — mostly Sikhs and a few Hindus — were stopped from boarding an evacuation flight to India by the Taliban on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, the Taliban had banned Afghans from leaving the country. The 140 Afghan Sikhs and Hindus are now taking shelter at Karte Parwan gurdwara in Kabul.

According to Puneet Singh, president of the Indian World Forum who has been coordinating with the central government to evacuate the last remaining Sikhs from Afghanistan, said this latest group had planned their visit to India months back as they were coming on an annual pilgrimage for the birth anniversary of Guru Tegh Bahadur.

Since commercial flights from Afghanistan have been suspended since the Taliban takeover and Kabul airport is being used only for evacuations, the community had reached out to the Indian government for assistance. This was arranged on an evacuation flight for which they left the gurudwara last night but were stopped by the Taliban at one of the checkpoints en route to the airport.

After waiting for 15 hours in their convoy, they returned to the gurdwara, according to Guljeet Singh, president of gurudwara Guru Nanak Sahib, Vikaspuri.

This batch of 140 Sikhs are among the last few hundred members of the community remaining in Afghanistan. Singh said in all there are now 215 Sikhs left in Afghanistan, and all the gurudwaras barring the one in Kabul have been shut down.