MARDAN: All four men accused of vandalising a life-size Buddha statue belonging to Gandhara civilisation soon after its discovery in a village of Mardan’s Takht-i-Bahi area were arrested on Saturday, officials said.

Police sprang into action when a video went viral on social media showing a man smashing the half-buried statue with a hammer as the other men looked on.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Archaeology and Museums Director Dr Abdul Samad said disrespecting any religion was intolerable and damaging the statue was a crime. He said it belonged to the Gandhara civilisation and was at least 1,700 years old.

Officials at the Sarosha police station said the suspects later identified as Qamar Zaman, Amjad, Aleem and Suleman were arrested and broken pieces of the statue were seized from their possession. The detained persons were residents of the same locality, the officials said.

They explained that an FIR was registered against the suspects under Antiquity Act 2016. It emerged during the preliminary investigation that labourers were digging an irrigation water channel through the farm land of a local landlord in Kamran village of Takht-i-Bahi tehsil when they found the five-foot-long half-buried Buddha statue.

It is noteworthy Mardan district has several archaeological and Buddhist sites. Takht-i-Bahi is one of the Unesco World Heritage sites. Many tourists and pilgrims from across the world, particularly followers of Buddhism, visit the Takht-i-Bahi site every year. Officials of the KP’s archaeological department said archaeological and Buddhist sites were found in several parts of the Mardan district, including Jamal Gari of Katlang tehsil, Shebaz Gari of Mardan tehsil, Safi Abad and Sar-i-Behlol localities of Takht-i-Bahi tehsil.

It is pertinent to mention that two Buddhist statues had been found in Sheikh Yousaf village of district Mardan one year ago when people were digging a grave. Those statues were handed over to officials of the archeological department.

According to experts, there were about 450 archaeological and Buddhist sites in different parts of Mardan district.

Mehmood Khan, who is a lawyer in the area, while talking to Dawn said Mardan district had several ancient sites of Buddhist monastery but the government of Pakistan had failed to take serious steps for their preservation.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2020