{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Kabul Press","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.kabulpress.org","title":"Should Buddhas Blasted by the Taliban Be Rebuilt? ","author_name":"","width":"600","height":"400","url":"https:\/\/mail.bamyanpress.com\/article1982.html","html":"\u003Ch4 class='title'\u003E\u003Ca href='https:\/\/mail.bamyanpress.com\/article1982.html'\u003EShould Buddhas Blasted by the Taliban Be Rebuilt? \u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cblockquote class='spip'\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMirza Hussain, and other prisoners like him, had labored for hours to stack mines, bombs and dynamite beneath the feet of Afghanistan\u2019s most iconic public artwork \u2014 a 175-foot standing statue of the Buddha carved from the sandstone cliffs of the Bamiyan Valley sometime in the 7th century. Finally, the local Taliban commander blew his whistle, and hundreds of observers plugged their ears, held their breath and waited for the Buddha to fall. It didn\u2019t. The first load of explosives only (\u2026)\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n"}