30 people held in connection to Badghis relic excavation

QALA-I-NAW (Pajhwok): Security personnel in northwestern Badghis province have arrested 30 people in connection to illegal excavations of relics from historic sites, an official said on Monday.

Information and Culture Affairs Director Matiullah Muttaqi said during the past four decades majority of the country’s historic sites, including some in Badghis, were damaged.

He expressed the view during a gathering about the Importance of historical relics and sites.

He added, currently 57 historical sites in Badghis province had been registered and the officials were determined to restore the damaged monuments as well.

Muttaqi, however did not offered figures of the damaged monuments but said: “About 70 percent of the historical monuments of that province were illegally excavated by some people”.

Without offering detail, he said till now 30 of illegal diggers, who were involved in illegal excavations of historical sites were arrested.

He added they planned a public awareness programmed on a districts level about the protection of historical monuments’ and sites.

Muttaqi said: “We have already talked to the Mullah Imams, district governors, officials of Vice and Virtue Department and some other influential figures about the importance of historical monuments protection and have to prevented from the destruction of such monuments”.

However, some residents of Badghis have told Pajhwok Afghan News that the cultural heritages express the identity of a society.

Ghulam Mohammad, a resident of Badghis said, the cultural heritages played positive role in the development of a society so they must be protected from damaging and illegal excavations.

Ghulam Mohammad said: “The historical heritages are good for the promotion of a society, so the people should protect them because it reflects the identity of that society as well”.

Abdul Ghafor, another resident of Badghis said: “The cultural heritages are the symbols of a country that reflects the history of that country, it is important for the people to protect them because they show that, what had happened in the historical era of a country”.

It is important for the people of a society to protect the historical monuments and prevent them from the illegal excavation.

Aw/nh

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