Islamabad, Nov 11: Militants in Northwest Pakistan's troubled Swat Valley have destroyed one of the oldest and most important Buddhist sculptures, second in importance in South Asia. The attack reminds one of the horrendous vandalism that destroyed the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan in 2001. Despite repeated requests by Pakistani archaeologists to the local authorities to protect the seated Buddha and other sites, especially after the first attack, no action was taken. "In fact, militants were able to carry out their work in broad daylight," said president of the Asia Society, Vishakha N Desai in an article in Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper. Dating from around the beginning of the Christian era, and carved into a 130-foot-high rock, the seated image of the Buddha was second in importance in South Asia only to the Bamiyan Buddhas, Desai said, adding that the attack was the second one in less than a month. Despite repeated requests by Pakistani archaeologists to the local authorities to protect the seated Buddha and other sites, especially after the first attack, no action was taken, she said. "In fact, militants were able to carry out their work, drilling holes in the rock, filling them with explosives, and detonating them in broad daylight," she said. "They did this not once, but twice. The first time, the image escaped heavy damage because of the militants' incompetence. The second time, they were more successful, destroying not only the sculpture's face, but also its shoulders and feet. As if that were not enough, there are now reports of a third attack," she said. Desai, who had earlier visited the Swat Valley in 1995 to study the area's Buddhist treasures, noted that the Buddhist relics were carved in the cliff side or protected in small beautiful museums. "These remarkable objects were the pride and joy of local Muslims, followers of the faith for more than a millennium," she said. "As a non-Muslim, Indian woman, I was able to travel through the region without any fear and received warm support from local residents. People of all stripes welcomed me, and were often willing to take me to important Buddhist sites," she said. Today, little over a decade later, the atmosphere is so poisoned that neither local community leaders nor the local police came forward to protect these monuments or claim them as their own, she said. "Even sadder is that while Pakistani newspapers widely condemned these attacks and criticised local officials' indifference, there has been almost no coverage in the international press," she lamented. There is a vast number of important Buddhist sites in Swat and other areas of Northwest Pakistan, she noted, stressing that the international community must not only register its outrage against such destruction of cultural treasures, but also join those Pakistanis who are desperately trying to pressure their government to preserve the pre-Islamic cultural heritage. "If the world does not act this time, we risk losing one of the most precious legacies of early Buddhist history.