KARACHI, May 15: Though the country is the proud heir to the over 5,000-year-old Indus Valley Civilisation, the government has never really given due priority to archaeology or antiquities.
This is illustrated by the fact that antique thieves, aware of the available treasure’s value, have had a field day, raiding relics not only from open sites, but also stealing precious items from highly guarded museums. The fact that the goods stolen have seldom been recovered shows the criminal negligence of the authorities concerned, it has been reliably learnt.
According to sources, the antiquities stolen from Pakistan have often landed in foreign countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, etc. Some of the countries have been kind enough to have returned the treasure stolen from Pakistan, but rarely have the thieves and antique traffickers been brought to book, suggesting that “real big fish” are involved in the trafficking business.
The sources, citing just a few cases from a long list of thefts, said that 40 rare coins – 19 gold, 15 silver and 6 copper – were stolen from the highly guarded National Museum of Pakistan in Karachi in 1986. Two gold coins, which were dropped by the thieves when they left after successfully completing the job, were found by the investigators from the crime scene. The rest of the stolen coins remain untraceable to date.
Some 40 precious artefacts, including copper and stone seals, were stolen from the Archaeological Museum in Mohenjodaro in 2002. They remain untraceable.
Footwear/slippers of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), which were on display along with many other religious relics at the relics gallery located in the Badshahi Masjid, opposite the Lahore Fort, a world heritage site, have been stolen. The gallery is also highly guarded and frequented by a large number of people who come to visit the Badshahi Masjid, one of the largest mosques in the world. The relics, till today, remain untraceable.
Ornaments, made from pure gold, of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s horse, which was on display at the Lahore Fort for a long time, have been stolen. The decorations were huge and could not have possibly been hidden in a pocket or inside a bag, but vanished during the daytime from the highly guarded Lahore Fort. These have also not been recovered.
The stuffed horse, on which the ornaments and decorations were adorned, put on display by the archaeology department, however, continues to remain on display – without any ornaments.
When an officer in-charge at Mohenjodaro, a world heritage site, was transferred, he took with him the keys of a wooden cupboard, with over 336 artefacts recorded in the accession register of the Mohenjodaro Museum, and did not hand over the keys or the charge of the cupboard.
The department and officer both forgot about it, and the issue only came to light approximately a quarter of a century later when the official concerned, at the time of his retirement, was denied a no-objection certificate.
Artefacts from Taxila and Swat Museums have also been stolen and have not been recovered so far.
An emotionally charged mob, instigated by encroachers on the archaeological department’s land, in the Pucca Qila (Hyderabad Fort) attacked the department’s museum and offices located in the fort. After ransacking and looting the artefacts and setting the remaining antiquities on fire, whatever escaped the looters’ wrath was reduced to ashes.
Among the numerous destroyed or looted antiques was a rare (apparently only one of its kind has been registered by archaeologists the world over) gold coin of the Ummayad period, which was excavated from Bhambhore.
Major portions of the protected premises in the Hyderabad Fort remain in the possession of the police and rangers who, despite orders from the Sindh government, have continued their illegal occupation of the site.
A foreigner carrying artefacts was caught by the customs department at Samungli Airport in Quetta. Though the artefacts have been detained by the customs, the influential person has been allowed to flee.
A few stone screens were stolen from the Chowkandi graveyard, located along the National Highway in the periphery of Karachi. When artefacts can be stolen with impunity from highly guarded museums at Mohenjodaro and other cities, the artefacts at open sites like Chowkandi are like an open invitation to the relic thieves. Chowkandi is over a kilometre long and has just one or two watchmen.
A report says that the subcontinent has been thoroughly stripped of its cultural heritage by the depredations of its former colonial masters, and among all the countries under colonial rule, this region has been the worst loser of its cultural relics.
Thousands of antiquities of Pakistani origin are on display in museums in Europe as well as the US. At least two antiquities consignments belonging to the Gandhara region and dating back to the 2nd and 5th century AD, had been smuggled out from Pakistan and were intercepted at Heathrow Airport, London. But the London Metropolitan Police has not yet returned these to Pakistan, which is not in accordance with Article 7 of the Unesco Convention.
However, relic thieves are not the only hazards, as the government’s lack of planning has also adversely affected the country’s historical sites. For example, the government, while widening the G.T. Road, razed the ancient hydraulic system of the Shalimar Gardens, a world heritage site, ruining the original irrigation system, through which the fountains worked.
The sources said that while the government did not properly guard or give due priority to the artefacts, the attitude of the people is also condemnable. One influential person razed a large number of graves in the Makli necropolis, also a world heritage site, to construct a straight road through the graveyard to his home on the other side.
Responding to Dawn queries, the federal Archaeology Department’s Sindh and Balochistan chief, Qasim Ali Qasim, said that artefacts stolen from the Mohenjodaro Museum, Chowkandi, and others, despite the best efforts by the department, have not yet been recovered.
Regarding the Hyderabad police and rangers’ encroachment in Hyderabad Fort, he said that though Governor Ishratul Ibad had ordered both these agencies more than once to vacate the protected site, the place still remains under their possession. Hopefully, it will be vacated soon, he said.
