They were just beautiful statues

Mohammed K. Roashan

The most recent act of the regime of Taleban, that of the destruc- tion of the historic relics of Afghanistan is yet another attempt of Taleban and their unexposed supporters to reduce our country and our nation to a bunch of wild peoples living on a piece of terrain in the heart of Asia that is totally in ruins. The world now looks upon us and our country as a people ranking in the lowest rung of the ladder of civilization.

It is now clear that Taleban are under the influence of the authorities in Pakistan whose aim it was to destroy our country and our prestigious name and fame in the world. The creation of rifts between the various tribes within the Afghan nation had its roots in the long-standing scheme of the former Soviet Union. The Russians were finally resorting to the age-old British policy of "divide and rule" in the subcontinent of India and Afghanistan. And when they failed, in much the same way as the British Raj did in South Asia, Pakistan attempted to try their hand in the same dirty trick. The latter has so far partially achieved its goal of breaking down the unity of the Afghan nation and keeping different factions at each other's throat. Nations of the world are already greatly disappointed and disturbed by the human tragedy in Afghanistan. The loss of over two million Afghans in the war with the Soviet Union, the internal Tribal conflicts and the natural calamities as earthquakes and landslides and famine and droughts are not issues that can be looked upon lightly.

Taleban have just added another element in their scheme of furthering the Pakistani cause of bringing Afghanistan and Afghans down further:

They have begun and have achieved their first goal of demolishing the nearly-two-thousand-year-old Bamian statues. Relics of our country's artifacts of the Buddhist period of Asian culture. It took scores of years to build, centuries to shine on the world of the period, and almost eight hundred years of existence under Islam. They hurt or affected no one, were looked upon as the greatest Buddha figures on earth and up to now not a single Afghan was converted to Buddhism by them. If anything, they brought tourists who paid good money to local residents for shelter and food while in Bamian and who marveled at the immense art of our forebears who created them all those centuries ago.

The entire world of humanity condemned the attempt and tried their best to dissuade the Taleban from demolishing these and other similar artifacts of ancient Afghanistan. Some nations even suggested buying them out rather than having them be destroyed for humanity. But no. Pakistan and their stooges, the Taleban, would not accept or honor any request. And they did the damned job. There are also those elements in Afghanistan and outside who believe that most of the artifacts of Kabul Museum and other museums in Afghanistan, had already found their way to Pakistan by the Pakistani sources of influence, and were clandestinely sold to art lovers elsewhere in the world. Pakistan did not want to be blamed one day for this cultural theft. They instructed Taleban to destroy the famous statues that could not be secretly taken out of Afghanistan and sold. And that is what they did.

It is said that the former Afghan King, Mohammad Zaher Shah, also stated this most recent act as "incongruous to the national interest of Afghanistan and clearly inconsistent with the norms and values of civilization and culture of the world." The ex-king referred to it as the work of "a regime which has been imposed on the Afghan nation with the support of the Government of Pakistan."

Evidently, with the continued rule of Taleban over Afghanistan, Pakistan would impose on Taleban many more acts and deeds detrimental to our national interest. It is high time that something should be done about this threat to our existence.

I wish the United Nations would finally take stern measures to remove this threat from the poor country and poorer people that until recently were proud of their name as Afghans. I wish this world body would take some decisive steps to bring about peace along with a broad- based government in Afghanistan. I yearn for an Afghanistan wherein the various tribal and ethnic groups of the Afghan nation could, once again, enjoy life as an honorable member of the family of nations in a country that has been theirs from times immemorial.