Int’l smuggling rackets might be involved

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Investigators of the artefacts heist at Zia International Airport are yet to find any clues or motives even after 100 hours of the incident. Their impression is that it was a “deliberate” and “well-planned” take.

They are also trying to find out if local or international smuggling groups were involved in the theft.

Law enforcers, so far, arrested 15 people in connection with the heist and investigators believe that any of the 15 could have information about the incident or even be involved in it. They have been placed on a five-day remand.

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), which plays a vital role in the investigation, focused on the suspects for their probe.

Additional Director General of Rab Colonel Gulzar Uddin Ahmed told The Daily Star last evening, “Our prime suspects now are the 15 arrested people. It is impossible for the heist to have taken place without them not noticing.”

“We are trying to recover the stolen artefacts besides finding out the culprits,” Gulzar said.

Rab sources said none of them yet confessed to them of having any link to the heist but investigators discovered anomalies in the statements of a number of arrestees and initial investigation is going ahead based on these.

Although the investigation is still in its initial stage, the investigators have made the primary analysis of the whole situation.

An investigator seeking anonymity said artefacts are not common commercial commodities and the thieves cannot sell them instantly and get benefit. There has to be a number of people behind the theft and they must have links with groups involved in smuggling artefacts.

He said a number of smuggler groups exist at the airport. Investigators are trying to identify such groups and determine whether they were involved in the heist. They are also trying to find out if international smuggling groups were involved, he said.

A Rab official said it would have been difficult to carry the artefacts by hand as they weigh 64kg. He believed vehicle or vehicles were used to make off with the artefacts.

Sources said Gate-8, known as the hanger gate, of the airport was close to the crime scene. According to the existing system, officials on duty at the gate are responsible for maintaining the register of vehicles entering and exiting through the gate. One Rab official said they have primary information that the register was not being properly maintained.

“We have information that some vehicles managed to use the gate without being registered. So, we are also taking a look into the matter and trying to identify the people responsible,” said a Rab official.

He said, “We will also try to find out whether the vehicles that entered without registration at that time did it intentionally or unintentionally. We observed that the cargo handling area at ZIA is not well protected. Earlier, we alerted the civil aviation authority several times about the grey areas in the security system.”

“The existing system at the area is complicated. So, investigators need to understand the system first, which is time-consuming,” the Rab official said.

Although investigators are considering the heist as a planned one, they are not ruling out the possibility of someone taking advantage of an opportunity to make off with the artefacts.

“Had somebody opportunistically stole the artefacts, the person must have had some knowledge about the value and demand of the precious relics and had links with networks dealing with such things,” said an investigator.

Those who have been opposing the decision of sending the artefacts for exhibition at Guimet Museum in France might be in it to foil the government’s move, said a Rab official. “We are also examining this possibility,” he said.

Amid tight security, two 1,500-year-old terracotta Vishnu statues bound for an exhibition in Paris were stolen from the custody of Air France at Zia International Airport (ZIA) between late Friday night and Saturday noon.

Named “Vishnu” and “Bust of Vishnu”, the statues are from Gupta era of the 17th century. Since being discovered in a dig at Mahasthangarh of Bogra, they had been kept at the National Museum.

Despite protest from art connoisseurs, the government was sending the statues along with 143 other artefacts to the Guimet Museum in the French capital under a deed signed with France. In the first phase, it sent 42 relics on December 1.

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