A Sequel to Bamiyan…

Most of you would remember the senseless destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by Taliban from a few years ago.

Some days go, I had alerted readers to another attack on Buddha statues – this time in Pakistan – which most media channels (including the revered BBC) chose to downplay.

Two days ago, the Islamic zealots returned to complete their unfinished business.

Excerpts from the story:

“The historic statue of Buddha in Pakistan’s Swat Valley was attacked for the second time in 20 days on Saturday night, damaging its head and shoulders. Militants have threatened that a third attack is imminent when they will “destroy it completely”.

…The Pakistan government has not yet issued any statement.

Musa Khankel, local correspondent of The News…told HT over telephone: “They told me they will come again to complete the job. They were proud of what they had done. They said they considered it their religious duty.”

Here is a picture of the statue, courtesy USA Today.

According to an earlier BBC report, “the Buddha statue in Swat valley (is)…considered (to be) the largest in Asia, after the two Bamiyan Buddhas…Swat has seen increased pro-Taleban activity in recent months”. I have not seen any mention on the BBC of the latest attack.

Muhammad Aqleem, deputy curator of Swat Museum, said (that) “he did not think that the police would be able to protect Buddhist cultural sites in swat as they themselves were the victims of terrorist attacks.” (sic)

On the other hand, this perhaps is really not “news” given the increasing Talibanisation of Pakistan…

🙁