A 2,000-year-old statue of Buddha was seized while a man was arrested from a Khanpur village in Haripur District.
Field officer Gul Nabi and site supervisor Raja Adnan invaded the house of Masroor Shah in Sultan Pur village on a tip-off, and recovered the Buddha’s statue from his possession said Nawazuddin, sub-regional officer Archaeology Department, Hazara.
A case has been filed under section under sections 52 (1) and (2) of KP Antiquities Act, 2016, according to officials the accused an Statue are under the custody of Khanpur Police.
According to Nawazuddin, the statue was 1×1 feet in its genuine condition, which the accused had stolen during illegal digging in some area of Khanpur bordering Taxila valley, and wanted to smuggle it to Punjab for onward transportation to some foreign country for better market value.
“ Historical analysis of the statue showed that the Buddha was in a meditating position and its period ranged between 1,800 to 2,000 years old,” said by Nawazuddin.
The official said That till completion of the prosecution process, the statue would remain under the custody Khanpur policy and would later be shifted to either Peshawar or Abbottabad museum.
