KABUL: Narender Singh, the son of slain Sikh leader Awtar Singh Khalsa, has secured a seat in the Lower House of the Parliament (Wolesi Jirga), according to Afghanistan Election Commission’s preliminary results.

Narender Singh has secured the seat on behalf of the Sikh and Hindu community of the country, as per a statement released by the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan (IEC). The parliamentary elections were held on October 20 last year. The final results are yet to be announced.

Awtar Singh Khalsa was a highly respected Afghan politician and the Sikh representative to the Loya Jirga from Paktia Province. He was the only non-Muslim representative there and he was also in charge of the main Gurdwara in Kabul.

Awtar Singh had planned to contest the minority seat in the 2018 parliamentary elections before being killed. Singh was killed on 1 July 2018 in a suicide bombing in Jalalabad which killed 18 other people, mostly from Afghanistan’s Sikh community. ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack.

His son Narender Singh also sustained injuries from the attack but later recovered and contested the parliamentary elections in place of his deceased father.