The residents fear that the move could trigger violenceThe Taliban have replaced the statue of a Hazara leader declared a national martyr by the former government with a replica of the Koran, Bamiyan residents said on Thursday — a move they warned could trigger violence. The original statue depicted Abdul Ali Mazari, a leader of the mostly Shia minority killed while he was a prisoner of the Taliban during their first stint in power. The statue was decapitated by a rocket-propelled grenade soon after the Taliban returned to power in August, in an incident residents blamed on the hard-line Islamists. “Yesterday, they completely removed the statue and replaced it with a replica of the Koran,” said Abdul Danishyar, a civil society activist in Bamiyan. “They are trying to wipe out the history from Bamiyan, the people are going to react violently to this.”

Source: The Hindu November 11, 2021 18:18 UTC