Official Says Clerics Gave Order on Statues
From Times Wire Reports
The decision to destroy ancient statues of Buddha was not made by the Taliban’s supreme leader but by 400 clerics who debated for months before declaring them idolatrous and “un-Islamic,” an information minister said in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital.
Some clerics had hoped the statues would be spared, but the ruling could not be reversed, said Qadratullah Jamal, information and culture minister for the ruling Taliban.
Mullah Mohammed Omar is the Taliban’s supreme leader.
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