'Treasure hunt' ends in fiasco!

The excavation work which started on 21 July in search of ‘hidden treasure’ underneath a house of Mirpur-10 in the capital, was officially abandoned on Thursday as experts did not get any metal objects there.

Experts from the Geological Survey of Bangladesh and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) visited the house along with Dhaka district executive magistrate Tazwar Akram Sakapi Ibne Sazzad on Thursday afternoon, said Mirpur police station officer-in-charge Dadan Fakir.

After conducting various tests, including heat-sensitive scanning until 4:00pm, experts said they had not found any trace of the metallic object under the house, UNB reports.

Later, the authorities gave up the ‘treasure hunt’, the OC added.

The policemen, who were deployed after the authorities postponed the excavation work on 22 July, have been withdrawn, said Dadan Fakir.

The entire operation was postponed to avert the possible risk of the building collapsing. “We’ve postponed the excavation to avert any untoward incident,” said executive magistrate Tazwar Akram.

The digging started in the morning of 21 July at the house of Monirul Islam at Road 16 (Block-C) of Mirpur Section-10 in presence of executive magistrate Md Anwar Uz Zaman after the house’s owner filed a general diary with Mirpur police station in this connection on 14 July.

Later, the digging was postponed around 3:30pm for the day and it was scheduled to resume on the following morning.

But the digging work was postponed on 22 July as the National Housing Authority’s executive engineer said there was a possibility of the building collapsing and loss of lives if the digging continued without taking proper measure.

Monirul Islam, who is claiming himself as the owner of the house, said he got information on the hidden treasure from its previous owner, a Pakistan national.