Artifacts from one of two Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban in 2001 at the famous Bamiyan site in central Afghanistan were stolen from storage immediately after the Islamist group returned to power last August, according to people familiar with the case.
The stolen Buddhist sutra and jute bag that had been kept at a German archaeological team's warehouse in Bamiyan are believed to be first-rate discoveries that could shed light on the creation of the sixth-century Great Buddhas carved info cliffs at the UNESCO World Heritage site.
