PESHAWAR, Oct 7: The customs department has foiled an attempt to smuggle statues of Buddha, stolen from Bamiyan province of Afghanistan during the rule of Taliban, official sources told Dawn here on Tuesday.

The smugglers wanted to send the Buddhas’ statues of Gandhara period and other antiques to Switzerland in the 60 fit container from the Peshawar Dry Port, Customs Superintendent Abdul Majeed said.

The World Plus International, Peshawar, on Monday delivered wooden boxes to Mehran customs clearing agency showing them old furniture for its shipment to Switzerland, he informed.

The customs officials on suspicion opened the boxes and after thorough checking recovered the Gandhara period statues, he said.

The archeology experts confirmed that these statues were genuine and stolen from Bamiyan province of Afghanistan during the hardline Taliban rule, the official

added.

“Weight of the one complete Buddha’s statue is 6.5 tones, while two are just heads of the Buddhas belonged to the Gandhara period,” Mr Majeed said.

Three other statues of Gandhara civilization period and some antiques were also recovered from the containers, he maintained.

The custom official said that the price of these statutes and antiques were millions of dollars in the international market.

Those arrested included Haji Ghulam Sakhi, son of Mohammad Yousuf, a resident of Hussainabad; Hamayun, son of Abdul Hameed, a resident of Latifabad and Shaukat Hussain, son of Faqir Mohammad, a resident of Gulshan Rehman Colony.

The customs department has registered an FIR under Customs Act 1969 and started investigation.