South Asia News
Bangladesh culture ministry chief resigns over missing relics
Dec 27, 2007, 5:04 GMT
Dhaka - A senior cabinet minister in Bangladesh has resigned over the disappearance of a shipment of ancient relics of the Hindu god Vishnu that were reportedly lost or stolen during transshipment to France, an official announcement said Thursday.
Ayub Quadri resigned from his office as cultural affairs adviser to the caretaker government, a position which made him head of the Ministry of Culture.
Quadri quit his job and accepted moral responsibility for the theft of two ancient Vishnu relics, which were on the way to France to be featured in an exposition in Paris.
The temporary export of the relics to France was in order to put the artifacts on show at an exhibition in the Guimet museum in Paris under a bilateral cultural accord.
The authorities went ahead with the shipment despite protests by local artists, writers and teachers who expressed fears that the relics would be stolen by global smuggling rings.
The first shipment from a collection of 145 rare artifacts was packed in over a dozen cartons and put on a cargo flight bound for Paris on November 30.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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