Kabul - Butchers with large, machete-like knives slaughtered 12 cows and distributed the meat to the poorest people in Kabul yesterday to atone for the delay in destroying two giant statues of Buddha in central Bamiyan.
The 12 cows were the first of 100 that were ordered killed throughout the country by the Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.
He issued the slaughter order last weekend, saying the cows would be sacrificed because of the tardy demolition of 170ft and 120ft statues of Buddha carved from a cliff face in the third and fifth centuries.
