Ancient Buddha statue discovered in Pak, destroyed by construction workers for being 'unIslamic'
Workers who were digging the foundation of a house discovered the ancient relic said to be from the Gandhara civilisation. Calling the idol “unIslamic”, the men smashed the statue into pieces.
Source: India Today <<<Videos in Link 7/18/20 by Geeta Mohan #TruthBomb2020
Videos of the incident have gone viral on social media.
An ancient Buddha statue, which was found in Pakistan's Takht Bahi area in Mardan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while digging the foundation of a house, was vandalised by local construction workers on Saturday as they considered the relic to be "unIslamic". Workers who were digging the foundation of a house discovered the ancient relic said to be from the Gandhara civilisation. Calling the idol “unIslamic”, the men smashed the statue into pieces. A video of the incident that has gone viral on social media shows the construction workers destroying the idol using a sledgehammer and expressing their resentment towards it.
A life sized statue of God Buddha was discovered in a construction site in Takhtbhai,Pakistan. However,b4 the Archaeology dept was informed about it, contractor had already broken it into pieces on suggestion of local Molvi. After Carbon dating,it is found 1800 yrs old.
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Abdul Samad, director, Archaeology and Museums in KPK said, “We have located the area and we will have those involved arrested soon.”
Pakistani media has reported that four people involved in vandalising the statue have been arrested.
READ | Rare Buddha statue vandalised in Pakistan nearly 1,700-year-old, belonged to Gandhara civilisation
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's old name is Ghandhara and the region is a highly revered place for the followers of Buddhism.
In 2017, two rare and ancient Buddha statues were unearthed at an archeological site in Bhamala in Hariput district. The largest ever statue found at the site depicts the death of Buddha and the second statue was a Buddha with a double halo.
The statue depicting the death scenario was the oldest of its kind in the world. It was also verified by the American laboratory which identified it as older than third century BC.
Peshawar Museum is also known for displaying one of the world's largest collection of architectural pieces on Buddha.
A couple of years ago, the museum's tallest statue of Buddha in schist stone was transported to Switzerland for display there for 100 days at an international exhibition.
Source: India Today <<<Videos in Link 7/18/20 by Geeta Mohan #TruthBomb2020
Rare Buddha statue vandalised in Pakistan nearly 1,700-year-old, belonged to Gandhara civilisation
A rare life-sized statue of Buddha that was smashed into pieces with a sledgehammer by construction workers in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province belonged to the Gandhara civilisation and was nearly 1,700 years old, a senior official has said.
Source: India Today 7/19/20 by Press Trust of India on #TruthBomb2020
Four persons were arrested for vandalising the statue that was discovered during excavation at an agriculture farm in tehsil Takht Bhai of Mardan district.
A rare life-sized statue of Buddha that was smashed into pieces with a sledgehammer by construction workers in Pakistan's northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province belonged to the Gandhara civilisation and was nearly 1,700 years old, a senior official has said.
Four persons were arrested on Saturday for vandalising the statue that was discovered during excavation at an agriculture farm in tehsil Takht Bhai of Mardan district. The suspects had followed the orders of a local Maulvi (prayer leader).
The arrests were made after a video went viral on social media showing a man smashing the statue, parts of which were still embedded underground, into pieces with a sledgehammer. Other construction workers can be seen looking on as the statue is being destroyed while a couple of people were making videos.
Director Archeology and Museums Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Abdus SamaThe director said that the statue belonged to the Gandhara civilisation and was approximately 1,700 years old. He added that the police had cordoned off the area, the Dawn newspaper reported.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Archaeology Department tweeted about the incident and posted a story of International Urdu channel that said the statue was at least 1,700 years old.
Samad termed the destruction of the statue a "crime" and said "disrespecting any religion is intolerable".
He also appreciated the police's "prompt action" in arresting the suspects.d Khan said on Sunday that the pieces of the destroyed statue have been recovered to assess its archaeological value.
"Apparently it was an ancient one. We lost it," he told reporters on Sunday.
Takht Bhai was once part of the Budhist Gandhara kingdom that stretched across modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan over 1,000 years ago. It is a tourist destination for people from Sri Lanka, Korea and Japan since it was a part of the Gandhara Civilisation - one of the earliest urban settlements documented in the history of the subcontinent.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's old name is Ghandhara and the region is a highly revered place for the followers of Buddhism.
In 2017, two rare and ancient Buddha statues were unearthed at an archeological site in Bhamala in Hariput district. The largest ever statue found at the site depicts the death of Buddha and the second statue was a Buddha with a double halo.
The statue depicting the death scenario was the oldest of its kind in the world. It was also verified by the American laboratory which identified it as older than third century BC.
Peshawar Museum is also known for displaying one of the world's largest collection of architectural pieces on Buddha.
A couple of years ago, the museum's tallest statue of Buddha in schist stone was transported to Switzerland for display there for 100 days at an international exhibition.
Source: India Today 7/19/20 by Press Trust of India on #TruthBomb2020
Four arrested over destruction of 1,700 year-old Buddha statue in Pakistan
Idol was uncovered in building works near historic religious site
Source: The Independent 7/19/20 by Raza Hamdani on #TruthBomb2020
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Police in Pakistan have arrested four people in connection with the destruction of a third-century life-sized Buddha statue.
Four people were detained on Saturday under antiquities law for allegedly destroying the centuries-old statue, police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the northwestern province of Pakistan, told The Independent.
The rare idol was discovered during construction work in a village near Takht-i-Bahi, known around the world for being the main cradle of the Buddhist civilisation. According to initial reports, the contractor and his three labourers destroyed the statue at the behest of local religious leader.
However, a local police official told The Independent “at this moment it is not clear why and on whose directives the four accused destroyed the statue”.
The group were arrested after their video, in which they could be seen hammering a statue to pieces, went viral on social media.
Abdul Samad, the provincial director of archaeology, told The Independent the labourers were doing construction work when they discovered the statue.
“Instead of informing the archaeology department that they have found a life-sized Buddha statue, they destroyed it and made video,” Mr Samad said.
He said that the police have also taken the pieces of the statue into possession. “It was a 1,700 years old Buddha statue. Police have cordoned off the area and we will soon conduct survey whether there are more antiquities in the village or not.”
However, he denied that the four accused hammered the rare statue to pieces on the directives of a local religious leader.
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In the video, the people could be heard discussing the statue while it was being destroyed.
One person says: “Look it’s a standing doll … look it’s a female and we just broke the thighs. Look this is her belly button … it’s not clean. This is the shirt … you know shirts which are long and hanging.”
Another man asks: “Is this of a Hindu or a westerner?”
A man standing next to him replies: “Hindu … this is Gautam Buddha.” Then the four men congratulate each other.
Mr Abdul Samad said the village where the destruction took place is not too far from Takht-i-Bahi. “Takht-i-Bahi is the most popular tourist destination in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where a large number of people from Sri Lanka, Korea and Japan come every year.”
Source: The Independent 7/19/20 by Raza Hamdani on #TruthBomb2020
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