The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Two rare invaluable terracotta statues of Hindu God Vishnu were stolen from the Zia International Airport on Friday as they were about to be shipped to Paris by a flight of Air France for exhibition at Guimet Museum in France.

Police arrested 12 employees of the National Museum, Civil Aviation Authority, Air France, airport ground handling operations, Ansar and the shipping agency for questioning.

Besides, police launched a combing operation at the airport and surrounding areas, including ponds and ditches employing divers of Bangladesh Navy to recover the invaluable artefacts.

Following the incident, the Ministry of Cultural Affairs has reportedly convened an emergency meeting to discuss the overall situation.

There were 13 wooden-made crates containing 147 pieces, which were scheduled to be sent to France by a cargo plane of Air France.

When the French Embassy was contacted at about 1:30pm yesterday, the officials said the remaining 12 crates should be sent. Nine crates had already been uploaded to the plane, while the joint forces seized these remaining crates. Several members of Ansar were arrested from the airport.

Besides, Jahangir Alam of the National Museum and Zakaria of Varendra Research Museum and all supervisors were arrested.

In the face of strong opposition of artists and cultural activists, a total of 147 artefacts packed in 13 crates were taken to the cargo complex at ZIA from the National Museum on Friday afternoon.

The artefacts were taken to the airport by a large carrier of Homebound courier services. Later, the Homebound authorities handed them over to Air France authorities after customs checking at the airport. The Air France cargo flight arrived late for dense fog. The crates were waiting for the aircraft.

When the crates were about to be loaded in the cargo aircraft of Air France, one of the cartons was found missing. In the missing crate there were two statues of Hindu God Vishnu. Later the empty crate was found outside the northwestern perimeter of the airport grounds in a residential area.

"The statues, weighing about 64 kilograms, were in a wooden-made crate that went missing from the Cargo Village at Zia International Airport late Saturday," deputy commissioner of police Khandaker Rafiqul Islam said.

"We have detained 11 men from the air cargo operator and airport staff for interrogation," he said, adding the authorities have also suspended further shipment of the remaining artefacts.

RAB Director-General Hasan Mahmud Khondaker said the arrested persons were taken to the RAB custody for interrogation.

Hearing the dreadful news, the officials of the National Museum rushed to the airport and Dr Swapan Kumar Biswas, acting keeper of the Department of History and Artefacts of the National Museum filed a general diary with the Biman Bandar police station in this regard.

CID and RAB have launched a manhunt to recover the missing precious artefacts.

DMP Commissioner Naim Ahmed told reporters that investigation is on to recover the missing artefacts, but he declined to make any disclose anything details.

Earlier, 42 artefacts in 10 crates were sent to Paris for the exhibition. The second consignment of 147 artifacts is being sent after the Supreme Court cleared the legal roadblocks.

The rare statues represent a deity known as the preserver of the universe and were selected from five state-run museums after an agreement between the French Embassy and the government's cultural affairs ministry.

Meanwhile, the French Embassy in Dhaka yesterday said they feel

the disappearance of a crate containing two small statues as 'highly suspicious and could also be the result of a conspiracy' by a very small nexus of persons to embarrass France and Bangladesh.'

The Embassy in a release said a crate containing two small statues belonging to the National Museum was stolen from the service area of Zia International Airport on Friday between 3.30 am and 7:00 am, hours before being loaded on a flight.

It said loose procedures geared towards garment exports have led to such valuable crates being left unattended on the tarmac of the airport in an area where neither the lending nor the borrowing institutions have any control.