UN asks Pakistan to reverse reconstructions at Taxila sites

The UN has asked Pakistan to reverse the “reconstructions” that “undermined the integrity” of two historical sites in Taxila, a UNESCO World Heritage site, or these would be placed on the agency’s “danger list”, a media report said on Thursday.

UNESCO, the cultural arm of the UN, in a recent meeting told senior government officials that it would not hesitate to “delist” the historical sites at Mohra Moradu and Sirkap, just like it had “delisted” a World Heritage Site in Germany, due to the recent “unnecessary interventions”, the Dawn newspaper reported, quoting sources. The UN agency warned that it would “delist” Taxila from its World Heritage List if the actions were not reversed.

Taxila, located in the Rawalpindi district of Pakistan’s Punjab province, is a vast serial site that includes a Mesolithic cave and the archaeological remains of four early settlement sites, Buddhist monasteries, and a mosque and madrassa.

The ruins of the four settlement sites at Taxila reveal the pattern of urban evolution on the Indian subcontinent through more than five centuries, according to the UNESCO website. In March, a visitor shared information and pictures with Pakistan’s Permanent Delegate to UNESCO in Paris, highlighting reconstruction works by the Punjab archaeology department.