Three Buddha statues recovered, five held
Rab says items looted from Ramu
Three touchstone statues of Lord Gautama Buddha, which Rab says were looted from Cox's Bazar's Ramu during an attack by religious bigots on the Buddhist community on September 29, were recovered from Feni and Comilla yesterday.
During a four-hour drive till 3:15am, Rapid Action Battalion (Rab)-7 also arrested five people -- Mohammad Shahjahan, 55, Nurul Alam, 45, Md Musa, 56, Anwar Hossain, 50, and Rafiqul Islam, 45, -- in this connection.
Addressing a press briefing at its Patenga office, Rab-7 Deputy Commander Nazmul Hossain said they went to Shahjahan's Jamtola residence in Feni disguised as buyers of black market statues.
There they arrested Shahjahan, Alam and Musa with two statues. As per their statements, Rafiqul was arrested from Nalua in Comilla's Chandina and Anwar with a statue in possession from his Nalua residence, he said.
The arrestees were handed over to police stations as per their residences and two cases were lodged, he added.
A mob destroyed 12 pagodas and over 50 houses during the attack. The violence was apparently triggered by the image of a Buddhist youth's facebook page that had been photo-shopped, revealed The Daily Star investigation. The page had an image derogatory to Islam pasted on it.
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