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Controversy surrounding the destruction of a Buddha statue in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa highlights growing religious intolerance
The ruins of an ancient Buddhist monastery in Takht Bhai in Khyber Pakhtunkwa province. (Photo: YouTube)
By Kamran Chaudhry | Pakistan
Activists across Pakistan are calling on authorities to protect minority sites after a video on social media showed Pashtun men smashing a life-size statue of Buddha with a sledgehammer.
"Look, this is his belly button. This is the undergarment of Gautama Buddha," stated a bearded man scratching away the mud with his fingers. Others thanked him for making the discovery. "We did it," exclaimed another after hitting the statue discovered at a construction site in the Takht Bhai area of Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkwa province.
"Your nikah [marriage] would cease to exist and you will no more be a believer if the statue isn't disposed of," a cleric told people at the site.
Four men were arrested on July 18 following a complaint by the Tourism Department. A first information report has been registered against them under the Antiquities Act 2016. Experts claim that the ancient statue was worth US$20 million.
Abdul Samad, Khyber Pakhtunkwa's director of archeology and museums, termed the destruction of the statue a "crime" and said "disrespecting any religion is intolerable." According to him, the statue belonged to the Gandhara civilization and was about 1,700 years old.
Takht Bhai (Brother's Throne) was once part of the Buddhist Gandhara kingdom that stretched across modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan over 1,000 years ago. The ruins of a monastic complex dating back to the early first century AD were listed as a Unesco world heritage site in 1980.
In 2016, a delegation of 39 Buddhist monks from Sri Lanka visited the remains situated atop a 152-meter hill. The government had invited the group for the Vesak festival to commemorate the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha. In 2015, South Korean monks visited Takht Bhai and the museum of Peshawar, the provincial capital.
Restive Khyber Pakhtunkwa boasts more than 2,000 archeological sites of the Gandhara civilization where Buddhism thrived until the eighth or ninth centuries. The discovered statues are housed in Peshawar Museum.
Media reports claim the contemporary Buddhist population in Pakistan is around 1,492. The only functional Buddhist temple is located in the highly secured Diplomatic Enclave in Islamabad and is used by Buddhist diplomats.
Lutheran Bishop Jimmy Mathew of Mardan, 40, remembers foreigners visiting the historical markets and photographing stupas. In 1986, laborers found earthen pots and bottles while digging the foundation of his old house in the cantonment area of Mardan.
"The ancient utensils were discovered while the foundations were being dug. Recognizing the reverence of the articles, my family buried them back. Such discoveries are common in our neighborhood," he told UCA News.
As a young priest of St. Paul's Sarhadi Church, Bishop Mathew used to organize tours for church youth to Buddhist monasteries. In 2012, an angry mob burned down his church during anti-Islam film demonstrations in Mardan.
"Young people should know their national treasures. Narrow-mindedness has no place in the global village of today. The brainwashed clerics are trying to pull back the country to the Stone Age. Terrorism and extremism have tarnished the image of our country," he said.
Samson Salamat, chairman of the interreligious Rawadari Tehreek (Movement for Tolerance), shared photos of religious icons placed in his office with the hashtag LoveBuddha. "Fear of Buddha statue shows their weakness," he stated in a Facebook post.
According to Cecil Shane Chaudhry, executive director of the Catholic bishops' National Commission for Justice and Peace, the vandalism doesn't come as a surprise.
"The wave of hate that began with the temple fiasco continues to grow. The attack on our heritage has no basis. This is yet another sad manifestation of the hateful narrative being taught in our textbooks. We are alarmed by such acts and fearing what's next," he told UCA News.
"There is a lack of strong will on the part of the authorities to counter opposition from extremist elements. Infighting within the ruling party is causing uncertainty. Still, we are encouraged by the arrest of the offenders. The mindset can be changed by teaching Islamic passages focusing on tolerance and respect for humanity."
Chaudhry referred to recent attacks on a site meant for the construction of the first Hindu temple in Islamabad, the federal capital. The Capital Development Authority this month stopped construction of the boundary wall. The move came nearly a week after Prime Minister Imran Khan approved a financial grant of 100 million rupees (US$597,000) to build Shri Krishna temple.
The government's move was met with angry social media reactions, legal challenges and a fatwa from Jamia Ashrafia, a leading Islamic religious school, which ruled that Sharia law doesn't permit the construction of a new temple in an Islamic state.
The government has now sought the guidance from the Council on Islamic Ideology, a constitutional body responsible for giving legal advice on Islamic matters.
Last year, mobs attacked Hindu-owned properties and places of worship in Sindh province after allegations of blasphemy were made against a Hindu school principal and a Hindu veterinarian.
In 2017, three 1,500-year-old Buddha statues were found among garbage at the National Museum in Karachi.
In 2007, a hardline group dynamited a Buddha image carved during the seventh century on a cliff in the Swat Valley of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
In 2018, the government restored the carving, one of the largest of its kind in South Asia, with the help of Italian archeologists.
Meanwhile, additional police contingents and snipers have been deployed at churches in Lahore following a security high alert on July 19. Deputy Inspector General of Operations Ashfaq Khan has alerted security personnel to monitor security arrangements at places of worship in the city. Police officers have been directed to remain in touch with church leaders.
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