A group of masked men had planted explosives in the rock, where the statue of the sitting Buddha is carved.
Swat, the land of romance and beauty, is celebrated throughout the world as the holy land of Buddhist learning and piety. Swat acquired fame as a place of Buddhist pilgrimage. There are now more than 400 Buddhist sites covering and area of 160 Km in Swat valley only. The Swat region is linked by road and by air with Islamabad/Rawalpindi and Peshawar in Pakistan.
The Khaleej Times reported that a group of armed men arrived in the village late Monday saying they were mujahedeen, or Islamic fighters, and told residents they wanted to blow up the 7-meter (23-foot) statue, said villager Amir Khan.
ADN Kronos reported:
Mingora, 12 Sept. (AKI/DAWN) - In a grim reminder of the destruction of world famous Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan by the Taliban (Video HERE) six years ago, militants tried on Tuesday to blow up a seventh-century Buddhist rock carving in Pakistan's Swat valley, northwest of the capital, Islamabad.Here's another photo of the statue in Jehanabad, Pakistan:
The the image of the sitting Buddha is carved into a 40-metre high rock in the mountains 20 kilometres north of Mingora, a town in the Swat valley.
The Gandhara civilisation site was not damaged by the blasts which were caused by two explosive devices that were detonated in the early hours of Tuesday.
Before the recent deterioration of the law and order situation in the valley, hundreds of tourists, mainly Buddhists, used to visit the site.
Local people said one explosive device had been planted on top and another in the foot of the rocks. The images were not damaged but a portion of the rock was.
They believed that it was the handiwork of local militants.
In 2001, the Taliban blew up the Buddha statues in the central Afghan province of Bamiyan saying they were offensive to Islam, despite appeals from around the world, including from Muslim leaders, that they be saved.
A survived statue of Buddha carved into a rock is seen in Jehanabad. (AP Photo/Hameedullah Khan)
Previously:
Bin Laden Implicated in Bamiyan Buddha Destruction
Their real purpose is to wipe out any semblance of any culture that's not islam so that at some point in the future there will be no trace or history of any other culture ever existing except for that of islam.
ReplyDeleteThat's also why they rape as many women as possible when they invade, so that after a generation or two they can claim that the society is and always has been mostly islamic. Just notice all the "Persians" invaded by islamic arabs who now look like arabs except for the green or gold eyes.
Speaking of Taliban and their problem with images, Phil on the Teampyro blog had a link to a Taliban girlie-boys video that's, well, something different:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.slatev.com/player.html?id=1151557602
I wonder how they would feel if someone went to blow up the Kaaba?
ReplyDeleteExactly.
For goodness' sake, people, you're referring to the Religion Of Peace. L O L !
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine Muslims going out and protesting such acts of cultural genocide? No, of course not, although they will get violently angry if someone merely disagrees with them. And then they whine that people dislike and distrust them. Islamophobia they call it. Well, yes, and I am a lifelong ku-klux-klan-phobe too.
ReplyDeleteThis is highly disgusting and abominable. But at the same we need to understand the broader picture and its context if we want to know the causes of this 'HATE' being spread by 'VERY FEW PEOPLE'. I am afraid if we do not bother to spot the real culprits, we are playing thier music i.e. spraeding more hatred rather than love and peace.
ReplyDelete