New Delhi: In a replay of the vandalism that destroyed the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan, pro-Taliban militants have damaged a 40-metre tall carving of Buddha in the Swat valley in north-western Pakistan.
The Buddha statue’s head, shoulders and feet have been destroyed. The militants have now threatened a third and final attack on the statue to reduce it to rubble. The statue is believed to be dating back to the second century BC.
Considered the largest in Asia after the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan, the militants had attacked the statue in August-September as well.
“This was the only giant Buddha statue after Bamiya. On September 29 extremists had tried to destroy it but the first attack on it was made on August 12. Archeologists say that it is difficult to protect the statues. People in the area still live in fear of other possible reprisals,” Dawn News correspondent Hamid Ullah Khan told CNN-IBN.
Swat, which is 200 km northwest of Islamabad, has practically been overrun by Islamic fundamentalists led by Mullah Fazlullah.
The Harmarajika stupa in Taxila and Butkarha stupa in Swat were among the earliest stupas of Gandhara — an ancient kingdom consisting of modern-day Peshawar, Taxila, Swat and, according to some historians, parts of Kashmir.
These stupas had been erected on the orders of Emperor Ashoka and contained real relics of the Buddha. The Gandhara school is credited with the first representation of the Buddha in human form.
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