4 individuals had been arrested on Saturday for vandalising the statue. (Representational)
New Delhi:
India has expressed its issues to Pakistan over a Buddha statue being smashed into items with a sledgehammer in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, and requested Islamabad to make sure the safety of the cultural heritage of minorities.
A uncommon life-sized statue of Buddha was smashed into items with a sledgehammer by development employees in Mardan district of the Pakistani province. The statue belonged to the Gandhara civilisation and was practically 1,700 years outdated, a senior Pakistani official had mentioned.
4 individuals had been arrested on Saturday for vandalising the statue that was found throughout excavation at an agriculture farm. The suspects had adopted the orders of an area Maulvi (prayer chief).
Ministry of Exterior Affairs Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava mentioned it was an incident of July 18 in Mardan district the place throughout the excavation of one of many homes, a Gandhara-style Buddha statue was discovered.
“What we perceive is 4 Pakistani residents on the behest of a spiritual cleric, who advised them that their religion will likely be renounced if they do not dismantle that statue, broke that statue with a sledgehammer,” he mentioned.
This has been extensively condemned, together with by the monks in Gaya metropolis, Mr Srivastava mentioned.
There’s additionally widespread concern expressed by a cross part of individuals in our nation, he mentioned.
“We’ve expressed our issues to Pakistan. We’ve conveyed our expectation that they’d guarantee the security, safety and well-being of the minority group there, in addition to shield their cultural heritage,” he mentioned.
Director of Archeology and Museums in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Abdus Samad Khan had mentioned on Sunday that the items of the destroyed statue have been recovered to evaluate its archaeological worth.
The director mentioned that the statue belonged to the Gandhara civilisation and was roughly 1,700 years outdated.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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