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Pak's archaeological assets under severe threat from ever expanding militancy | The ever-expanding terror threat in Pakistan has not only affected country's civilian regime and its economy, but it has also ruined ancient Buddhist monasteries and other such historical relics in the war ravaged North West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Places such as Mingora, Peshawar and the Swat Valley were dotted with magnificent
remains of the Gandhara kingdom, which flourished from the 6th century B.C. to
the 11th century A.D, but the military operation which was initiated to flush
out the extremists from the region has left a trail of destruction of these historical
relics. Just as the Afghan Taliban destroyed the gigantic 1,500-year-old statues
of the Buddha in Bamiyan, Afghanistan in 2001, militants in Pakistan have
continuously
targeted the various Buddhist heritage sites in Pakistan, driving away foreign
research teams and tourists. Fear of terror attack on these archaeological sites
have forced the authorities to close down the museums and other historical Buddhist
monasteries in the region, which has put their existence in jeopardy, as lack
of maintenance could prove disastrous for these age-old structures. "Militants
are the enemies of culture," The Time quoted Abdul Nasir Khan, curator of the
museum at Taxila, one of the country's premier archaeological sites and a former
capital of the Gandhara civilization, as saying. "It is very clear that if the
situation carries on like this, it will destroy our cultural heritage," added
Khan. He said arrangements were made after warnings of a possible terror attack
on the Taxila museum, but they were insufficient. With the situation getting worse
despite the government's claims of clearing the region of extremists, archaeologists
fear that these sites would once again vanish as they did hundreds of years ago
because of the pressure of war and conquest. "There's no preservation, no one
to look after the site. The local people are damaging the site because of illegal
diggings," said Dr.Nasim Khan, professor of archaeology at the University of
Peshawar.
Former in-charge of the Department of Asia at the British Museum, Robert Knox
also expressed fears of extinction of these sites. "We were in Bannu for a very,
very long time. We scratched the surface. There's still an enormous amount to
do and sites are lost more or less daily. It's almost a free-for-all, particularly
in difficult war-like areas," said Knox, who had spent over 30 years (1970-2001)
in Pakistan excavating ruins of Gandhara kingdom. |
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