Fact Check: Has the Taliban restored the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan

New Delhi, Aug 23: It has been over two decades after the mindless Taliban destroyed two massive Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan.

Now a claim has gone viral stating that these statues destroyed by the Taliban have been restored. Taliban government of Afghanistan has restored Buddha of Bamiyan within one year. When is the Narendra Modi government going to restore Babri Majsid, a user called Maualana Fayaz Uf kani wrote on Twitter.

First and foremost OneIndia can confirm that the statues of Bamiyan have not been restored by the Taliban. Moreover the photo being shared on the social media is not from Afghanistan.

We also found a recent report that said the Taliban have begun construction on a tourism complex just metres away from the cliff that held the Bamiyan Buddha statues. Experts have reportedly warned that this could cause permanent damage to the world heritage site.

"In 2001, the Taliban destroyed two giant statues that had towered over the valley for more than a millennium, but the niches where they stood, and surviving cave frescos and other remains still make the site one of global importance," the Guardian report of August 2 also said. This makes it clear that the Buddha statues have not been restored in Afghanistan.

When we searched the internet for the source of the second photo, we learnt that it is from the Kanheri Caves in Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Borivali, Mumbai. You can find the photo used here and here.

If you look at the original Bamiyan Buddha statue it is very different from the one that is found at the Kanheri Caves in Mumbai. Hence we can conclude that the claim that the Taliban has restored the Bamiyan Buddha statue is false.