Sunday August 10, 2014
Kabul (BNA) As the ancient Aryan’s capital, Balkh province is the hub of various historical monuments, as Mohammad Saleh Khaliq, head of province information and culture told media that some 14 districts of the province including Hairatan as well as the central parts of Mazar-e-Sharif enjoy more than 90 areas of ancient and historical monument. The districts such as Khulm, Daulatabad, Charbulak, etc… had full been paid attention by the relevant authorities since the last 12 years, for repairing of the ancient monuments, while according to him; there were some other districts like Marmolak and Churkin with few historical monuments. In many parts of the prcvince, with ancient and historical sites, many cases of reckless excavation had been feared to take place, but, thanks to the province security forces, particularly the 012 security contingent which had completely protected the monuments. But he said in some remote areas of Khulm and Daulatabad districts, some diggings had been taken place with the authorities of the Ministry of Information and Culture had been informed about to arrest those involved and bring them to justice.
He said French archeologist delegation have helped them research on the ancient monuments and in the area of reconstruction, alongside the development budget of the Ministry of Information and Culture, the US and German Federal Republic (GER) and (in some fields) Holland and Norway have provided cooperation. The Agha Khan Development Network (AKDN) had also contributed with reconstruction of the monuments, but there are many other monuments requiring full repairing of the monuments. He asked the government for deployment of security forces in the areas, where reckless diggings are taking place, as well as development budgets to help sponsor the reconstruction process. About the future plans, Khaliq said the provincial directorate of the Ministry of Information and Culture, under its five years plan is trying to reconstruct further monuments with the next year’s one is to repair four to five monuments remained from the Timurid’s era, with 31 years back, reaching to 13th century.
