More on Bangladesh and the Mus ée Guimet

[Geoffrey Samuel]

Unfortunately it is not true that the stolen objects were soon 
recovered, at least not in an intact form. See the following article 
from the Daily Star (4th Jan 08), which has a photo of the head of 
the smashed Vishnu image:

http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=17754


Geoffrey Samuel

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Stolen Artefacts : Vishnu's torn face recovered from Aminbazar

Kailash Sarkar


Three more fragments of the stolen statues the 'Bust of Vishnu' and 
the black-coloured 'Vishnu' were recovered from Baliarpur of 
Aminbazar dump yard yesterday.

The Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) recovered the face and a fragment of 
left hand of the 'Bust of Vishnu' and a piece of the basement of 
black 'Vishnu'.

Md Aminul Huq of Rab-1 said: "We along with Dhaka City Corporation 
(DCC) employees have so far recovered 45 fragments of the broken 
statues."

Swapan Kumar Biswas, acting keeper of the National Museum, who 
detected yesterday's recovered fragments at the Rab-1 office, told 
The Daily Star: "This is a major recovery of the broken 'Bust of 
Vishnu'".

About 20 percent of the statue has so far been recovered, while the 
recovery of the 'Vishnu' is very insignificant, he added.

According to eyewitnesses, the fragments of brown-coloured 'Bust of 
Vishnu' grew pale.

Talking to The Daily Star, Gazi Abdul Mannan, deputy assistant 
director of Rab-1 who led yesterday's drive, said: "We found the 
fragments by digging out at least four layers of the garbage.

"Other fragments were also recovered from the spot yard and all the 
pieces were found within 30-40 yards. The remaining pieces might be 
hidden there."

Rab-1 sources said they also recovered two other fragments of the 
'Bust of Vishnu' on Wednesday and 28 others on December 28.

The two priceless artefacts were stolen on December 21 from the Zia 
International Airport (ZIA) while these were on way to France for an 
exhibition.

Rab personnel have so far arrested 27 people in this connection and 
of them three -- former lawmaker Anwara Begum, Abbas Ali, alleged 
ringleader of "Abbas-Nasir" smuggling gang of ZIA, and Nasir Uddin -- 
were placed on a three-day remand.

The rest have been sent to the prison.

Sub-inspector Monu Sohel Imtiaz of Airport Police Station, also the 
investigation officer (IO), said: "The three-day remand ends today 
[Thursday] and they will be hauled before the court tomorrow [Friday].

"There have been major developments following the interrogation and 
we are now looking for some other persons. Our higher authority will 
decide whether to remand them further."

Maj Md Aminul Huq of Rab-1 said: "We're hunting for Mohammad Ali, who 
was a sweeper of the civil aviation and was sacked for his illicit 
activities, and Razzak, who is involved in smuggling at ZIA."