By Freshta Jalalzai Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty March 7, 2020 Less than 48 hours before the Taliban signed a conditional peace agreement with the United States, I telephoned the spokesman of the Taliban’s Doha office to discuss the terms of the pending accord. “I am driving at this very moment,” Suhail Shaheen told me when I
AFP: It has withstood time, the elements, looters and war,but after at least 15 centuries buried underground, a spectacular Buddha restored and removed from one of Afghanistan’s most dangerous regions is to make its public debut in the country’s national museum. The statue, which depicts the sage in a purple shroud offering his hands to the
The Art Newspaper: A cultural centre at the Unesco World Heritage site in Afghanistan where the Taliban destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhas is due to open to the public in summer 2018. Construction began in September on the 2,450 sq. m building by the Argentinian firm M2R Arquitectos, which beat more than 1,000 other entrants in an
Xinhua: “Its natural beauty, panoramic landscapes, historical monuments, hospitable people and, above all, its peaceful environment, has lured me to Bamyan,” tourist Mohammad Haroon told Xinhua recently. Visiting the site of the giant Buddha ruins and lambasting the Taliban for blowing up the cultural heritage with dynamite, Haroon protested that the hardliner group, by destroying a
Sky News: Experts are meeting to discuss whether two ancient statues of Buddha destroyed in Afghanistan in 2001 by the Taliban should be restored. The monumental antiquities were carved into the cliffs of the Bamiyan Valley in central Afghanistan and had stood watch over the population for centuries. Now, archaeologists and restorers are considering whether the imposing