Analysis: Taleban isolation deepens

Taleban waited years before moving against Buddhist relics

By South Asia correspondent Mike Wooldridge

International outrage over the decision of the Taleban regime in Afghanistan to destroy ancient Buddhist statues and other historical artefacts is mounting.

The lobby to stop the destruction has brought together India and Pakistan. Nepal, Buddha's birthplace, also joined in the condemnation on Friday.

The Bamiyan Buddhas are unique in size and age

It was on Monday that the Taleban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, ordered the destruction of the statues associated with Afghanistan's distant Buddhist past.

The international chorus of protest has gathered momentum during the week, but has been galvanised with Taleban announcing on Thursday that the operation had already begun, and that it was to include the most famous relics - two soaring statues of the Buddha in Bamiyan.

One is the world's tallest standing Buddha.

The founder of Buddhism was born at Lumbini, in western Nepal, and Buddhists believe he attained enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, in India.

On Friday, Nepal called the destruction order reprehensible and urged the international community to join hands to preserve the monuments.

India's Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Pramod Mahajan, told parliament his government would make every effort to stop the demolition and would raise the issue at every international forum, including the United Nations.

An Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman called it an absolute outrage.

Regional concern

The Taleban is now asserting that the operation is at least in part motivated by the destruction by Hindu extremists of the Babri mosque in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya in 1992 and the subsequent campaign to construct a temple on the site.

India has not specifically responded to this yet, but it can be expected to draw on the fact that Muslim nations have joined in the protests.

India is a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists

Pakistan, one of only three countries that recognise the Taleban regime, said it attached great importance to the preservation of the world's historical, cultural and religious heritage and appealed to Taleban to protect the monuments.

Tashi Wangdi, Minister for Religious Affairs in the Dalai Lama's exiled administration in Dharamsala, in northern India, said the threatened monuments were more than Buddhist objects.

They were part of the common heritage of Afghans and of humankind, he said.

He said Afghanistan had been a Muslim country for more than 1,000 years, but the statues had never before been an intrusion in the faith of Afghans.