An international diplomatic campaign will not succeed in saving Afghanistan's ancient Buddhist statues, Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil said on Thursday. Taliban chief Mulla Mohammad Omar said Monday he was proud to order the destruction of the country's Buddhist heritage and urged the Muslim world to unite behind his vision of Islam. But there's one Hyderabadi who is simply devastated. Musham Damodar, amateur historian and professional philatelist, who has in his possession a rare Afghan stamp of the Bamiyan Buddha, is a saddened man. In an emergency meeting of the Buddhist Heritage Project on Friday, members expressed anger over the outrageous action of the Taliban regime in destroying the ancient relics of Buddhism in Afghanistan.
History repeats itself.
This was done on the plea that idol or religious object worshipping was un-Islamic. What followed was cultural mayhem - destruction of famous temples and loot of their wealth. As the world mourns the loss of the tallest Buddha statues at Bamiyan, for India, which sought world intervention to prevent the ravage, the loss is a lot more, for its association with the Bamiyan Buddhas was not just spiritual and cultural. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said on Sunday that the destruction of two giant Buddha statues by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers was an act of uncivilized people with no respect for human feelings. Taliban supremo Mullah Umar's February 26 fatwa, to destroy all idols of worship and its implementation within five days, can be interpreted from four different angles.