Hindu images damaged at Maldives museum

A mob of suspected religious extremists smashed images from the pre-Islamic era.

The Maldives national museum reopened Tuesday without some of its most valuable exhibits a week after a mob of suspected religious extremists smashed images from the pre-Islamic era of this Indian Ocean archipelago.

About 35 exhibits,mostly images of Buddha and Hindu gods,were destroyed. Some of the artifacts dated to the sixth century,museum director Ali Waheed said.

Waheed says 99 per cent of the Maldives pre-Islamic artifacts from before the 12th century,when most inhabitants were Buddhists or Hindus,were destroyed.

Some of the pieces can be put together but mostly they are made of sandstone,coral and limestone,and they are reduced to powder, he said. The mob of suspected Muslim extremists attacked the museum during the Maldives unfolding political crisis. The attack was reminiscent of the Talibans demolition of the great carved Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan in early 2001,and it has raised fears here that extremists are gaining ground in the Maldives,a Sunni Muslim country that historians say converted from Buddhism to Islam in the 12th century.

We are very sad. This is the physical and archaeological evidence of the country,we have nothing to show (of the pre-Islamic history), newly sworn in President Mohamed Waheed said.

Waheed said the the attackers did not understand that the museum exhibits were not promoting other religions in this Muslim country. Practicing or preaching any religion other than Islam is prohibited by the Maldives constitution.