New Delhi: They came in a military vehicle wanting to check the sprawling museum building, recalls the curator.

Although he sensed danger to himself and to whatever had remained of the priceless artefacts, antiques and innumerable pieces of rare collection the Kabul Museum was known for, there was no way he could stop them.

He let them in only to see the fears come true as the Taleban men went on a demolition spree. "We are following the orders - no statues, nothing that is un- Islamic will remain," they said as they went on systematically spraying bullets, breaking into pieces the priceless collection.

Hammers were used to pound and break ancient statues that withstood the hail-fire of bullets. The museum, known as one of the richest repositories of culture in the world, was dying a slow death.

The curator, not wanting to disclose his name, mustered courage as he managed to keep in a trunk an idol to save it from destruction.

The Durga idol in the Kabul museum thus survived the marauding Taleban men, says Apratim Mukarji, senior fellow of Indian Council of Social Science Research, whose book on Afghanistan is due for release. Mukarji who has travelled extensively in Afghanistan for his research, is also a member of the group of enthusiasts working for restoration of collection of the Kabul Museum.

The Durga was hid by the curator but the Shiv Linga that stood in the museum gallery remained untouched. May be, the Taleban soldiers were confused whether to target it for destruction. "It does not look like a statue anyway," Mukarji says.

Even the imposing statue of Kanishka fell to the bullets of the Taleban men. Broken pieces of the king's statue is what now remains, says Mukarji. The museum building itself is in a dilapidated condition, he says. The building has been hit by countless number of rockets that aimlessly pounded Kabul and its surrounding areas during the factional war in Afghanistan.

Located at Darulaman, around eight kilometres to the South from Kabul the Kabul Museum often came under attack, lay as it is on the outskirts of the Afghan capital. The attacks often were launched from the South and the museum building became the frontline of the attacks.

According to Mukarji, archaeologists will take years even to collect the lists of the collection with the museum. Recovery of the looted treasure, which by now would have been sold many times by international antique smugglers, would take even longer. Not only the falling rockets, the collection in the museum was looted by the warring factions who would make huge money by selling the treasure to the smugglers.

Rough estimates by experts say that over 70 per cent of the museum's collection is now missing. Most of its vast gold and silver coin collection which spanned the nation's long history has been looted.

Pieces of Buddhist sculptures dating between the first and the third centuries, Hindu marble statuary from the seventh and ninth centuries have long gone missing and so are the carved ivories in classic Indian styles from Begram, site of the summer capital of the Kushan empire. A unique feature of the museum was that 90 per cent of its collection was from the excavations made in the country itself.

PTI