Attempt to steal Shangla Buddhist sculpture fails

When noise attracts locals to site, thieves manage to escape

PESHAWAR:

Unidentified people tried to steal a Buddhist sculpture carved in solid rock in Chakisar Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's Shangla district.

They drilled holes under the sculpture with the help of a powered drilling machine in order to clean-cut the rock but escaped when the noise attracted locals to the site in the night.

Shangla district, which was part of the former Swat estate, is considered rich in Buddhist sites along with Buner district and adjacent areas. During the peak militancy period in Swat, however, these sites were vandalized by the local militants openly who defaced the sculptures.

Locals in Shangla even defaced many of the rock Buddhas back in 2018 without inviting any attention from the quarters concerned as most of the Buddhist sites are scattered around a vast area in the difficult mountainous terrain in the Hindu Kush range.

When contacted, Director Archeology and Museums Khyber-Pakthunkhwa, Dr Abdul Samad said that they were in constant contact with the local Deputy Commissioner (DC).

“There are a couple of houses nearby. They are made bound through an affidavit by the Assistant Commissioner Tehsil Puran on our recommendation,” he said, adding that there was no immediate threat to the site as the house owners are the land owners as well.

“Any damage, loss to the site and these people will be held responsible for that as it is stated in the affidavit on a stamp paper signed by these people living there,” he said.

Samad said that local elders have also been taken in confidence to support our cause and discourage and restrict such activities.

“Our staff visited the site and every step is being made,” he said.

An official of the Archeology Department told The Express Tribune that archeological sites in Shangla, most of Swat, Buner, Dir Upper and Lower, Malakand and Bajuar tribal districts remain unexplored largely.

“These sites are unexplored and undocumented. And with the discovery of marble and minerals in these areas people are openly employing rock blasting technique abandoned by West a century ago,” he said, adding that this was not only damaging the marble and minerals but also these rock carved monuments.

“Government have failed to introduce modern quarrying techniques so dynamite is considered the easiest and cheapest way of mining but by using explosives around 60 percent marble is wasted.

Marble is cut in blocks with the help of cutters around the world but we are still living in the 19th century technologically speaking,” he said, adding that government should ban the use of dynamite immediately to save the marble reserves as well as the archaeological sites.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2021.