Bangladesh mounts nationwide search for missing Vishnu relics

Dec 24, 2007, 11:20 GMT

Dhaka - Bangladesh has mounted a nationwide search for ancient Hindu relics which went missing from Dhaka's airport during transshipment to France for display at an international exhibition, police and witnesses said on Monday.

About a dozen suspects were detained since the weekend when the authorities were loading the second shipment of the rare artifacts for France for display at an international exhibition.

The suspected theft of the relics amid tight security has embarrassed the interim government which assumed office a year ago as a stop-gap measure to run the country until a general election can be held to restore democracy.

Ayub Qaudri, the adviser to the Ministry of Education and culture, said further shipments of the relics had been suspended until the alleged theft case was resolved.

'Two crates of the relics went missing at the airport, but later an empty carton was retrieved from a nearby pond,' airport police chief Ruhul Amin said.

Amin said about 188 items, including scarce icons of the Hindu God Vishnu, were to be exhibited in an international exposition at the Guimet Museum in Paris.

The exhibits from Bangladesh were selected from the National Museum and four other museums across the country under a bilateral accord on culture between France and Bangladesh.

Witnesses said the first consignment of the relics was shipped out of Bangladesh on November 30 despite rising protests from sculptors, painters and cultural activists who feared the objects would be stolen or lost forever at the hands of international networks trading in ancient works.

'The authorities have taken an illegal action by attempting to ship out invaluable statues to a foreign country and this we will always protest,' said Nisar Hossain, who teaches at the Fine Arts Institute in the capital Dhaka.

Several campaigners on Friday locked the gates of the National Museum, where the priceless exhibits were housed temporarily en route to Paris, but witnesses said the locks were broken by security forces before these statues were packed by the shippers.

Protesters, including academics, students and cultural activists, blamed the Bangladeshi and French cultural officials for hatching plans to permanently export the artifacts from Bangladesh.

The shipment of the relics hit a snag when some campaigners moved the High Court to use its power to stay the export of the precious cargo till the legality of the order has been established.

Meanwhile, the government has set up a probe commission to investigate the stealing of at least two important Vishnu relics at the international airport when they were being trucked on the tarmac under tight security by armed police and commandos.

The five-member commission has been given three days to identify who was responsible for the alleged theft of the Vishnu images.