பங்களாதேசத்தில் இந்து கோவில் சிலைகள் தொடர்ந்து திருடப்படுகின்றன

இந்து கலாச்சாரம் தொடர்ந்து அழிக்கப்பட்டு, இந்து சிலைகள் திருடப்பட்டு வெளிநாட்டுக்கு கடத்தப்பட்டு விற்கப்படுகின்றன


Rare statues disappear
23/12/2007 14:14 - (SA)

Dhaka - Two rare Hindu statues of a major deity have disappeared from Bangladesh's main airport as they were about to be shipped to Paris for a museum exhibition, police said on Sunday.

The artefacts - two ancient statues of the Hindu god Vishnu - were in a packed carton that went missing from Zia International Airport in the capital Dhaka late on Saturday, deputy commissioner of police Khandaker Rafiqul Islam said.

They were part of 188 rare cultural items being sent to the Guimet Museum in the French capital for a major international exhibition on Bangladesh history and culture, he 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.

Majority-Muslim Bangladesh was first created as East Pakistan following the subcontinent's independence from British rule in 1947. It won independence from Pakistan with aid from Hindu-majority India during a war in 1971.

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.