Staff Reporter :
After 36 hours into the incident, police are yet to recover the handbag of Netherlands ambassador Leoni Margaretha Cuelenaere, which was stolen from an exhibition at Fine Arts Faculty of Dhaka University on Monday afternoon.
Not only that, the police still could not arrest anyone in connection with the theft, whereas the footages of the fleeing thief along with the booty were provided to the Police Department a few hours after the incident.
When contacted, Officer-in-Charge of Shahbagh Police Station told The New Nation on Tuesday evening: “We’ve not yet nabbed the criminal. We’ve launched a manhunt to catch the thief… None was so far arrested on suspicion of involvement in the incident.”
“The thief has been seen in the footages shot by several TV channel crews. We’re analyzing the footages now.
It was a young man who did the occurrence. His identity is yet to be confirmed,” the OC further said. Officials said the Dutch envoy went to the Arts Faculty premises to inaugurate a photography exhibition as the Chief Guest. The exhibition was arranged on the occasion of fourth anniversary of Photography Institute ‘Counter Foto.’ Significantly, it was not an occasion of Fine Arts Faculty’s own. Dean of Arts Faculty Nisar Hossain said there were mobile phone, notepad and some important documents in the purse. “The ambassador left the purse on the chair when it was stolen. The footages show that the young man fled with the purse as soon as the Dutch envoy left her seat to light a candle as part of the programme at about 5:00pm.” Meanwhile, the incident of theft in the crowded place has created sensation among the diplomatic circle while the envoys are getting some special security during their movement against the backdrop of recent terror attacks.
At the same time, the incident of theft defying security arrangement has also hit the headlines of the social media. Especially, the ‘frustrated’ picture of the aged envoy went viral in the Facebook where Margaretha Cuelenaere was seen asking the officials concerned about her stolen purse.
Several Facebook users have termed the incident as ‘national shame’. They also demanded immediate arrest of the thief.
Some Facebook users have also commented that these types of incidents will certainly damage the image of Bangladesh in the outer world.
