Bamako: Militants from the al Qaeda-linked Ansar Dine group on Sunday continued with their effort to destroy mausoleums of Sufi saints with guns and pick-axes in the famed Mali city of Timbuktu, despite the warnings by UNESCO and ICC, media reported on Sunday.
According to reports, the salafist Ansar Dine backs strict sharia, Islamic law, and considers the centuries-old shrines of the local Sufi version of Islam in Timbuktu to be idolatrous.
Sufi shrines have been attacked by hardline Salafists in Egypt and Libya in the past year.
The group has threatened to destroy all of the 16 main Sufi mausoleum sites in Timbuktu despite international outcry. UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova has called for an immediate halt to the attacks.
Local journalist Yaya Tandina told Reuters that about 30 militants armed with Kalashnikovs and pick-axes destroyed three mausoleums of saints on Sunday.
“They had armed men guarding the door. Just like yesterday, the population did not react. They (local people) said we need to let them (the Islamists) do what they want, hoping that someday we will rebuild the tombs,” Tandina said.
Residents said the destruction was halted around midday when some of the militants went to a mosque in the centre of the city, but it was unclear if they would continue.
“We are subject to religion and not to international opinion. Building on graves is contrary to Islam. We are destroying the mausoleums because it is ordained by our religion,” Oumar Ould Hamaha, a spokesman for Ansar Dine, told Reuters by telephone from the northern Mali city on Sunday.
Timbuktu resident Hamed Mohamed said the Islamists destroyed the tombs of saints Sidi Elmety, Mahamane Elmety and Cheick Sidi Amar, all in the west of the city.
Ansar Dine is made up of Islamist fighters of various nationalities including Malians, Algerians and Nigerians.
“What shocks me the most is the presence of foreigners among them who do it with mockery while shouting Allah Akbar,” Mohamed said.
“For me it is a declaration of war and a crime against our cultural heritage. It is time that the international community helped us.”
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