In Afghanistan, Anti-Taliban warrior's statue decapitated in Bamiyan city

Shortly after taking control over much of the nation's provinces in the past weekend, Taliban knocked down a statue of Shiite militia commander Abdul Ali Mazari. In history, Abdul, who confronted the Taliban terrorists during the country's civil war in the 1990s. 

More about the decapitated Statue in Bamiyan

On Wednesday, the inhabitants of the Bamiyan city reported that the monument of a renowned anti-Taliban warrior was decapitated. Abdul Ali Mazari, an Afghan politician who represented the ethnic Hazara minority was proclaimed as a national martyr in 2016. This was declared over the two decades after the Taliban stated that he perished in a helicopter firefight. Photos of the broken monument circulating across social media revealed it to be mostly intact, but with the head lying on the pedestal.  It seems that the statue has been beheaded. 

According to a resident, on Tuesday, a squad of Taliban gunmen deployed a rocket-propelled grenade to demolish the statue.  

The sculpture is situated in central Bamyan province, where once the Taliban notoriously imploded two enormous 1,500-year-old Buddha statues carved into a mountain in 2001, just before the US-led operation that toppled them after the 9/11 attack. The Taliban claimed that the Buddhas were practicing idolatry, which is forbidden in Islam. 

On the other hand, the Taliban expressed no apologies for the sculptures' devastation at the time. They have sought to present themselves as a different movement this time after regaining power which will include them allowing girls to attend school and women employment. 

Hazaras, who make up 10 to 20% of Afghanistan's 38 million people, have consistently been targeted by Sunni hardliners for their mainly Shiite faith in a nation riven by ethnic divides. 

History about  Abdul Ali Mazari

When the Taliban took control from opposition warlords in 1995, Abdul Ali Mazari was a militia leader who was murdered by the Taliban. Mazari and several of his comrades were tricked into visiting Taliban commander Mullah Burjan for peace talks at Charasyab in March 1995. Mazari, on the other hand, was kidnapped, tormented, and executed by the Taliban, whose body was thrown from a helicopter in Ghazni. 

Whereas, the Taliban stated that Mazari died because he fought them while being transported to Kandahar. He was laid to rest at Mazar-e-Sharif, which was under the authority of Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum at the time. 

(Image Credit: ANI)