A black stone statue of Lord Vishnu, believed to be more than 1,000 years old, has been recovered by police in Bangladesh from a teacher, according to a media report on Thursday.
Police recovered the statue from Boro Goali village in Cumilla district, The Daily Star newspaper reported.
The height of the black stone statue is about 23 inches and its width is 9.5 inches. It weighs about 12kg.
Nazrul Islam, officer-in-charge of Daudkandi Police Station, said: "A teacher named Abu Yusuf found the statue one and a half months ago. But he didn't inform us. On secret information, we recovered it from his house on Monday night."
However, Yusuf said: "I noticed this statue about 20-22 days ago while digging soil from a pond... We could not inform the police as we were busy with work."
"The unearthed Lord Vishnu statue is very valuable. It is possibly more than 1,000 years old. It should be immediately handed over to Mainamati museum for proper preservation," Ataur Rahman, former regional director of Chattogram divisional archaeology department, said.