Dhaka police hunt for two stolen Vishnu statues

Police in Bangladesh capital Dhaka are searching for two statues of the Hindu god Vishnu which were stolen from Dhaka airport.

Dhaka, Dec.25 : Police in Bangladesh capital Dhaka are searching for two statues of the Hindu god Vishnu which were stolen from Dhaka airport.

The statues were to be flown to Paris with other artefacts for an art exhibition at the Guimet Museum when they went missing on Saturday night.Dhaka police say they are questioning 12 people they have detained in connection with the theft. The statues, valued at about 65,000 dollars, were among a number of artefacts sent to France by the Bangladesh Government.

The government fears the statues might have been smuggled to India

"These are masterpieces and very valuable to our cultural heritage.The government should not have agreed to send them abroad," a foreign news agency quoted Shamsuzzaman Khan, a former head of the Bangladesh National Museum, as saying.

The two terracotta statues were sculpted about 1,500 years ago.

The government's cultural affairs adviser, Ayub Quadri, told the BBC he was thinking of resigning over the issue.

"Ultimately we at the ministry have to take responsibility," he was quoted, as saying.

ANI