Abdullah Sarhadi, a former Taliban commander and current official of the group, told the BBC that he had a direct role in the destruction of the historic Bamiyan Buddha statues in 2001 and said he does not regret the action.
Sarhadi, who was the Taliban’s military commander in Bamiyan during the group’s first period in power, initially refused to answer a question about the destruction of the historical monuments. However, he later accepted direct responsibility for the action and said: “I destroyed it with my own hands.”
In defending the action, he said that the destruction of the statues was carried out in accordance with the Taliban’s views and orders and that he sees no reason to express regret over it. According to previous reports, the two large Bamiyan Buddha statues were blown up and destroyed in March 2001 on the orders of Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban’s then-leader. The action was widely condemned around the world.
Abdullah Sarhadi has also defended the destruction of the monuments in recent years. In 2024, he said that the destruction of the Buddha statues was carried out on the orders of Mullah Mohammad Omar and based on religious arguments.
The Bamiyan Buddha statues were among Afghanistan’s most important historical and cultural monuments, and their destruction is considered one of the most prominent cases of the destruction of the country’s cultural heritage during the Taliban’s first period in power. Historical reports have also identified Abdullah Sarhadi as one of the individuals responsible for carrying out the operation.
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