18 statues of Buddha recovered in Khagrachhari
Army yesterday recovered 18 statues of Lord Buddha from zero mile of army check post in the Sadar upazila.
Two persons were arrested in this regard. The arrested were identified as Utfal Kumar alias Sagor, 28, son of Biswajit Roy of Shantinagar village under Patiyaghat upazila in Khulna district and Mohammad Ibrahim Khalilulla, 29, son of Abdul Gani of Mashua village in Bagerhat district.
Police and intelligence sources confirmed that an army team recovered the statues of Lord Buddha from a Chittagong-bound passenger bus at about 4 pm. Two of the statues were of big size while 16 others were of small size, they said. Police said they found the statues from a sack kept on the roof of the bus.
On primary interrogation, both of the accused said they had bought all of the 18 Buddha statues from local tribals. They were taking the statues to Chittagong for business purpose, they said. Their interrogation was going on at 38, Bengal Regiment under Khagrachhari Brigade till filing of the report at 7 yesterday evening.
While contacted, sub-inspector (SI) Moujuddoha said the statues were made of brass and iron. A case will be filed against the two after an interrogation, he said. An investigation is going on to ascertain whether both of the accused were members of of international gang of smugglers on not, the SI said.
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