MINGORA: The police claimed on Sunday to have seized Buddhist artifacts and arrested three men while transporting the items out of Swat.

They said following an intelligence report they carried out a raid at Baorrai village in Khwazakhela tehsil and caught three men trying to smuggle five ancient Buddhist artifacts in a car.

“All the five artifacts, including statues of Buddha of some ancient times seem to have unearthed recently. Some of them are made of bronze while others of silver, which we have seized and arrested the men who were smuggling them,” Fazal Rabi, SHO Khwazakhela, told Dawn, adding the arrested men revealed they bought the artifacts on payment of Rs4 million and were trying to sell them to international smugglers.

The police officer said cases were filed against them under antiquities act and further investigation was underway. The alleged smugglers were named Sherullah, Zakirullah and Abdul Ghafar, all belonging to Khwazakhela.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2018