KABUL: Afghanistan has halted conservation work at a site once occupied by ancient Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban because the team involved is suspected of secretly trying to rebuild one of the statue’s feet, the United Nations said.
Any attempt to rebuild the statues without official permission could lead to the site losing its World Heritage status.
The Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, decreed in early 2001 that two ancient giant Buddha statues in the valley in Bamiyan province were unIslamic and ordered they be destroyed. They were blown up with dynamite the next month.
The German wing of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) had been working alongside the United Nations in the valley, aiming to reinforce the cliff into which the Buddha statues were carved.
But the work was halted after a team from the UN cultural agency UNESCO visited the site in December and found pillars built into the rock looked suspiciously like feet, according to a UNESCO official. REUTERS
