American Buddhist Net

It might help if more people understood that Buddhist statues are not "sacred." They are just beautiful works of art that belong to the artistic and religious heritage of the entire world. Why destroy something that is so old and irreplaceable? ABN
_________________

November 05, 2007
Vishakha N Desai

Despite repeated requests by Pakistani archeologists to the local authorities to protect the seated Buddha and other sites, especially after the first attack, no action was taken. In fact, militants were able to carry out their work in broad daylight

...In northwest Pakistan’s Swat valley, armed Islamist militants recently attacked one of the oldest and most important sculptures of Buddhist art. Dating from around the beginning of the Christian era, and carved into a 130-foot-high rock, the seated image of the Buddha was second in importance in South Asia only to the Bamiyan Buddhas.

LINK TO ORIGINAL