The suicide bombing has created a sense of panic among the local minority groups of Hindus and Sikhs who are thinking of moving to India, after the Sunday bombing killed the Sikh representative Avtar Singh Khalsa.

Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing attack in the eastern province of Afghanistan that killed 19, mostly Hindus and Sikhs on Sunday. The suicide bombing targetted a delegation which was moving towards the residence of the governor for a meeting with President Ashraf Ghani. Ghani was in Jalalabad at the time of the attack.

According to AP, in a statement, terror organisation IS claimed responsibility saying it had targetted the group of “polytheists.”

The suicide bombing has created a sense of panic among the local minority groups of Hindus and Sikhs who are thinking of moving to India after the Sunday bombing killed the Sikh representative Avtar Singh Khalsa. Khalsa was the only Sikh candidate in the parliamentary elections of the Afghan nation.

“I am clear that we cannot live here anymore,” Tejvir Singh, 35, whose uncle was killed in the blast told Reuters. “Our religious practices will not be tolerated by the Islamic terrorists. We are Afghans. The government recognises us, but terrorists target us because we are not Muslims,” added Singh, the secretary of a national panel of Hindus and Sikhs.

The country which once had a strong population of 250,000 Sikhs has now been reduced to just 300 families after the civil war began in the early 1990s. The minority groups face intense discrimination and prejudice despite official political and state recognition. “We are left with two choices: to leave for India or to convert to Islam,” Baldev Singh, who owns a book- and textile shop in Jalalabad told Reuters.

Meanwhile, the Indian administration has indicated a willingness to accept these minority groups in the country, “They can all live in India without any limitation,” Vinay Kumar, India’s ambassador to Afghanistan told Reuters. “The final call has to be taken by them. We are here to assist them,” Kumar added.

The Indian government had assured help to the Afghan government after the attack with Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeting, “We strongly condemn the terror attacks in Afghanistan yesterday. They are an attack on Afghanistan’s multicultural fabric. My thoughts are with the bereaved families. I pray that the injured recover soon. India stands ready to assist the Afghanistan government in this sad hour.”

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also met with the relatives of those who died in the Jalalabad bombings on Sunday and said “My heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of the terror attack in Jalalabad city of Afghanistan. We are with them in this hour of tragedy.”

In a major setback for Pakistan ahead of the 25 July general election, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has formally placed the country on the ‘grey list’ for failing to curb terror funding. India promptly welcomed the decision, hoping Pakistan would now address global concerns relating to terrorism emanating from its territory.

The highly-anticipated decision came on Friday night at the concluding session of the week-long plenary of the anti-terror finance watchdog in Paris.

The global body took the decision on the basis of a monitoring report of the International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG). It came despite Islamabad strongly claiming at the meeting that it had made progress in the majority of areas identified as threat by the terror-financing watchdog.

Pakistan, it is learnt, accepted the grey-listing because even its traditional allies like Saudi Arabia, Turkey and China could not defend it at the meeting. If Islamabad fails to comply with the FATF blueprint, it could be even moved to the blacklist next year

Reacting to the development, India hoped Pakistan would comply with the  FATF’s action plan in a time-bound manner and take credible measures to deal with terrorism.

“Pakistan has given a high-level political commitment to address the global concerns regarding its implementation of the FATF standards for countering terror financing and anti-money laundering especially in respect of UN designated and internationally proscribed terror entities and individuals,’’ External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar pointed out.

He observed that the freedom and impunity with which designated terrorists like Hafiz Saeed and entities like the Jamaat-ud-Dawaa, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed continue to operate in Pakistan was not in keeping with such commitments.

Meanwhile, China, an ‘all-weather’ ally of Islamabad, declined to comment on Pakistan being placed on the ’grey list’ but heaped praise on the country, saying the world should recognise the enormous efforts and sacrifices it had made to combat terrorism.

The FATF asked Pakistan to complete implementation of the action plans expeditiously and within the proposed timeframes, saying it would closely monitor the implementation of those action plans.

The FATF’s decision could hurt Pakistan economically as the country runs the risk of being downgraded by multilateral financial institutions. Being on the ‘grey list’ could also mean that accessing funds from international markets could become tougher for Pakistan.

The ICRG report showed that Pakistan did show progress on some of major areas of concerns. Pakistan Finance Minister Shamshad Akhtar represented the country at the meeting, strongly refuting the allegation of lax supervision of the financial sector.