Date 9-3-2001 PESHAWAR (AIP): Taliban on March 8 destroyed upper part of Buddha statue with dynamite in central Bamyan province. Buddha is a statue of Buddha, the title given to Gautama Siddhartha, the founder and teacher of Buddhism. Taliban destroyed upper part and bottom of the Buddha sta...

Date 8-3-2001 PESHAWAR (AIP): As many as 90 Afghan disabled and handicapped children who were flown to Germany for treatment have arrived at Kabul airport in an Aryana Boeing 727 flight today morning (March 8). A non-governmental organization, Peace Village International has been providing treat...

Date 8-3-2001 PESHAWAR (AIP): A Shiite militant organization of the opposition forces, Hizbi Wahdat, last night attacked Taliban forces, sparking a three hours long fierce gunbattle in central Afghanistan. However, Taliban sources said the attack was repelled and claimed to have killed five fig...

Date 7-3-2001 PESHAWAR (AIP): A three-member delegation of Japanese parliamentarians is due to arrive Islamabad tomorrow (March 8, 2001) for holding talks with the Afghan officials on the Buddhist era statues demolition issue. Japanese Ambassador to Pakistan Sadaaka Numata held a meeting with h...

Date 6-3-2001 PESHAWAR (AIP): Taliban have also rejected a proposal of constructing a huge wall around the Buddhist era statues, which they have started demolishing amid growing international criticism. An Afghan engineer in London, Abdullah Naveed, has proposed the construction of a huge wall...

Date 5-3-2001 PESHAWAR (AIP): Japanese Ambassador to Pakistan met his Afghan counterpart in Islamabad to discuss the issue of statues demolition in Afghanistan. The meeting which lasted for an hour was held at the residence of Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdus Salam Zaeef. Japanese e...

Date 5-3-2001 PESHAWAR (AIP): Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdus Salam Zaeef has said that one fourth (1-4th) of two larger Buddha statues have been razed with dynamite in Bamyan province. Zaeef told AIP that Taliban have started demolishing the statutes with explosives on March 4, 200...

Date 4-3-2001 PESHAWAR (AIP): Mualvi Wakeel Ahmad, Foreign Minister of Taliban has rejected two proposals of Iran about the statues. A Foreign Ministry official of Iran, Mr. Barahemi, has talked with the Afghan government and said that Iran was ready to purchase the statues and make arrangement...

Date 4-3-2001 PESHAWAR (AIP): Foreign Minister Wakeel Ahmad Muttawakkil has said that there was no possibility that the decision of statues demolition will be reversed. This, he said while talking to special envoy of UNESCO, Mr. Fierre Lafrance, who called on him in Kandahar on March 4, 2001....

Date 3-3-2001 PESHAWAR (AIP): Special UNESCO envoy Mr. Fierre Lafrance held a meeting with Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan in Islamabad, Mullah Abdus Salam Zaeef at Afghan consulate on March 3, 2001. The UNESCO envoy handed over a letter of UNESCO director general to the Taliban official. Mull...