Former governor who oversaw destruction of ancient Buddhas is elected to Afghan parliament
By AMIR SHAH | Associated Press
October 18, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan - A former regional governor who oversaw the destruction of two giant 1,500-year-old Buddha statues during the Taliban's reign has been elected to parliament, election organizers announced Tuesday as the results from two provinces were finalized.
In the latest fighting, meanwhile, U.S.-led coalition forces killed four police after mistaking them for militants during an operation in southern Afghanistan, a top government official said Tuesday. The coalition said it could not confirm the incident and was investigating.
The Taliban disregarded worldwide protests in March 2001 and used dynamite and artillery to blow up the fifth-century Buddha statues, famed for their size and location along the ancient Silk Road linking Europe and Central Asia. The Taliban considered them idolatrous and anti-Muslim.
At the time, Mawlawi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi was the Taliban's governor of Bamiyan province where the statues are located. After U.S.-led forces ousted the fundamentalist regime in late 2001, he fled to the country's north and was never detained unlike other Taliban officials.
Of course the Buddhas were destroyed because the Taliban were angry at the UN for spending so much money preserving the statues when Afghanistan had so many other pressing problems. Not to worry though, seeing as how Afghanistan is now a paradise, a multi million dollar project to rebuild them as tourist attractions (!) is underway.
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