No place for history: Four men arrested in KPK for shattering ancient Buddha statue

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police has arrested four men who shattered an ancient Buddha statue found during construction work in the province’s Takhtbhai area of Mardan. Videos surfaced on social media showing a man breaking with a hammer a life-sized statue of Buddha, parts of which were still embedded underground. KP police later tweeted that pieces of the broken statue were recovered.

Doctor Abdul Samad, KP director archaeology and museums, termed the destruction of the statue a “crime” and said “disrespecting any religion is intolerable”. The director said that the statue belonged to the Gandhara civilisation and was approximately 1,700 years old.

Source: Dawn