.Sculptures of Buddha demolished by Mullah Fazlullah (Pro-Taliban)

Written by: Jawad Mazhar (ROD/Special Correspondent for BosNewsLife in Pakistan)

Swat Valley, Pakistan, Nov 23^rd, (ROD/BosNewsLife): When the Taliban destroyed two Buddhist statues in Afghanistan in the spring of 2001, there was an international outcry. But similar incidents are now occurring in northwest Pakistan, where radical Islamists blew up a sculpture of Buddha in broad daylight on Nov 14^th, 2007.

The phenomenon is new and disconcerting. Even the Pakistani government describes it as "Talibanization" Parts of the country are now in almost exactly the same situation as neighboring Afghanistan was when the Taliban were still in power there.

This is especially the case in the formerly peaceful Swat region, where a militant Islamist leader has even proclaimed an "emirate." And just as in Afghanistan, the Islamists` hatred is directed, in part, against the traces left by the ancient Buddhist civilization in the region.

Islamists inspired by the Taliban recently destroyed an important Buddhist sculpture 40 meters (131 feet) tall and about 1,300 years old in the north-western part of the Swat Valley.

Sources have revealed that Islamists were able to act without any interference from the local administration -- in broad daylight. Their first destruction attempt left the sculpture undamaged; the second damaged the Buddha’s face, shoulders and feet. The culprits had used large machines to drill shafts into the historic monument. They then filled the shafts with explosives and detonated them; it was not the first of its kind. As recently as September of this year, gunshots were fired at a rock effigy of Buddha in the same region.

The demolition of the Statues of Buddha was carried out on the orders of Mullah Maulana Fazlullah; Mullah Maulana Fazlullah is currently the strong man in the Swat region, notwithstanding his youth: He is only 28 years old. He thinks of himself as part of the Taliban movement and accepts only one authority: Mullah Omar. He has even proclaimed an "Islamic emirate" in his area of influence, and he commands a militia estimated to comprise some 4,500 men.

But Buddhist artifacts are not the only thorn in the Islamist`s side. He also emulates the Taliban’s religious and moral terror in other respects. For example, he threatened members of the Christian minority in the region -- about 1,000 people -- with death if they do not convert to Islam through unsigned threatening letters, a local Member of District Government, Kamran George told BosNewsLife a few days ago. On another occasion a Christian girl’s school was closed down and was allowed to re-open on the condition that all girls wear Burqa (Islamic Veil used by women).

Fazlullah even prevented the implementation of a polio vaccination program supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the New York Times reports. Fazlullah claimed the vaccinations would make men impotent.