Buddhist relic damaged in Pak blast

A seventh-century Buddhist relic in Pakistan was damaged when Islamic militants blasted it with dynamite, police said yesterday.
They said the militants used home-made bombs to try to blow up the mountainside engraving, a Buddhist pilgrimage site, and fired at it using automatic weapons.
"Late Friday militants attempted to blow up the engraving but they could only damage it partially," local police official Masood Khan said, adding it was the second attempt to destroy the relic, in Swat in northwest Pakistan.
A local museum official said thousands of Buddhist pilgrims came to the region every year despite security threats to visit the image of Buddha sitting cross-legged, and criticised authorities for failing to protect it.
The incident recalled the internationally condemned destruction of the huge Bamiyan Buddhas in neighbouring Afghanistan by the hardline Taliban regime in 2001.
Swat is known for its Buddhist heritage and archaeological sites and attracts large number of tourists, mainly from Buddhist countries.
It is also a stronghold of Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi, a radical group linked to Afghanistan's Taliban militia that was banned in 2002.