India has raised concerns regarding the recent incident of vandalisation of a thousand-year-old Buddha statue in Pakistan. The country expressed its concern to the Pakistan government via a diplomatic note. Last week, an ancient Buddha statue was vandalised in Northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province's Takhtbai area of Mardan. The director at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Archaeology and Museums, Dr. Abdul Samad, was quoted by Dawn newspaper as saying that the Buddha statue belonged to Gandhara civilisation and is 1700 years old. In june, many incidents of defacement and destruction of Buddhist archaeological sites occured in Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Source: dna July 23, 2020 06:32 UTC